Office of Information Practices

The Office of Information Practices (OIP) would like to remind boards about the Sunshine Law’s requirements for setting time limits on oral testimony.  Boards may set reasonable time limits on oral testimony under section 92-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), which states that “boards may provide for reasonable administration of oral testimony by rule.”  HRS § 92-3; OIP Op. Ltr. No. 02-02 at 11 (concluding that a board could adopt a rule placing restrictions on the length of oral testimony by members of the public so long as those restrictions were “reasonable”).  Although the Sunshine Law uses the phrase “by rule,” OIP does not interpret this to require administrative rulemaking under chapter 91, HRS, for setting testimony time limits.  However, OIP generally interprets “by rule” to mean that if a board wishes to impose time limits on oral testimony, then the board should adopt such a rule as a policy reflected in writing.  To enforce a time limit on oral testimony, the board must have a written rule or a documented decision adopting the rule such as meeting minutes.  If a board does not have a rule regarding testimony time limits, then the board may still request that testifiers keep testimony within a specified length of time, but cannot enforce such a time limit. 

OIP also addressed testimony time limits on page 21 of its Open Meetings Guide to “The Sunshine Law” for State and County Boards.