Office of Information Practices

U Memo 14-12
June 30, 2014
Correspondence About UIPA Request

Requester sought a decision as to whether the Department of Enterprise Services (DES) properly denied access under Part II of the UIPA to written communications about an earlier UIPA request made by a Honolulu Civil Beat (Civil Beat) reporter.

OIP found that one e-mail exchange that was responsive to the record request did not involve an attorney-client communication and was between City employees in two different agencies. As such, it was not an internal agency communication and thus could not properly be withheld under the deliberative process privilege recognized under the UIPA’s exception for information whose disclosure would frustrate a legitimate government function. The e-mail exchange should have been disclosed under the UIPA.

OIP also found that the remaining records in dispute are communications between DES and its attorneys, and as such were properly withheld based on the attorney-client privilege as expressed in the UIPA’s exceptions for information whose disclosure would frustrate a legitimate government function and information protected from disclosure by state law.  HRS §§ 92F-13(3) and (4) (2012).