Office of Information Practices

S Memo 26-01
October 23, 2025
Applicability of Sunshine Law to Working Group 

Requester asked for an investigation into whether a group created by the Maui County Department of Planning to discuss potential revisions to the Maui Planning Commission’s (Commission) Special Management Area (SMA) Rules and Shoreline Rules, known as the Shoreline and SMA Working Group (Working Group), was a board subject to the Sunshine Law and, if so, whether it violated the Sunshine Law by holding meetings without following the Sunshine Law.  OIP found that the Working Group was not created by constitution, statute, rule, or executive order, and therefore does not satisfy all the elements of the Sunshine Law’s definition of board and is not a board subject to the Sunshine Law.  OIP also found that the Commission did not delegate any of its powers or authority to the Working Group.  Therefore, OIP concluded that the Working Group is not a board governed by the Sunshine Law either in its own right or through the delegation of the Commission’s powers, and so the Working Group did not violate the Sunshine Law by holding meetings without following the Sunshine Law’s Provisions.