Office of Information Practices

S Memo 24-03
June 25, 2024
Communication Outside of Meeting, Sufficiency of Notice

A requester asked for an opinion as to whether Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Board of Directors (HART) violated the Sunshine Law when three members communicated by email outside of a meeting.  The requester also asked whether a meeting notice was sufficiently detailed.

OIP found HART violated the Sunshine Law when three members discussed board business by email outside of a noticed meeting in December 2020 and no permitted interaction at section 92-2.5, HRS, applied to authorize the discussion.  However, an email communication between three members in January 2021 that forwarded factual information without comment did not amount to a discussion of HART business and did not violate the Sunshine Law.

HART’s discussion of agenda item VII at its meeting on December 17, 2020, violated the Sunshine Law because the meeting notice did not contain a sufficiently detailed description of the matters to be considered by HART at the meeting to comply with the notice provisions in section 92‑7, HRS.

Finally, emailed questions from two HART members to HART’s attorney as to what could and could not be done under the Sunshine Law did not show an intent to evade the Sunshine Law’s provisions on openness.