“It’s amazing, the amount of power — there really is a lot of power on the board.”
That’s the view of Chris Yuen, former Big Island member of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, who was interviewed in the July issue of Environment Hawai`i[/url]. And it is a view borne out by history. In the years since its formation in the early 1960s, the board’s decisions are seen in the everyday landscape of the islands, to say nothing of the fiscal health of the state.
Given that amount of power, there is no excuse for failure of board members to be anything but absolutely scrupulous in abiding by the state’s open meetings law.
Legal action brought by Common Cause-Hawai`i and Environment Hawai`i last year should have put paid to any lingering doubts the board or its chair, Mike Wilson, had concerning the applicability of the state Sunshine Law, Chapter 92, to board meetings. As we report in this issue, that lawsuit concluded with a judgment in which the board conceded every point that we raised.
There were two things we asked for that were not granted by the court. One was a request that the judge in the case conduct an in-camera review of the minutes — if they exist –of board executive sessions. The review was sought so that there could be some independent confirmation of the board’s claim of perpetual privilege for these records. Although state law requires that minutes of closed sessions be unsealed when the need for privilege expires, the board’s position, through its deputy attorney general Linnell Nishioka, is that the need for privilege is eternal.
The second action we sought but were denied was an injunction that would have prevented the board from continuing to poke a thumb in the public’s eye by failing to conduct open meetings. The board’s position on this claim was that, if it had erred in the past, it certainly would not do so in the future. Judge Kevin Chang gave the board benefit of the doubt.
Yet two days — two days — after the final judgment was filed, the board conducted a closed meeting. For one half hour, it met in secret. To be sure, anyone who happened to stroll in could have sat down and enjoyed the raucous meeting. (A tape was made by staff of part of the proceedings. The meeting, in which items were approved as soon as the heading of the staff submittal was read, is characterized by much laughter, informality, and an occasional joke about how, at this rate, they could finish business before the public came back.)
One can only marvel at this. A state deputy attorney general apparently was in attendance, but, since she was not the same one who litigated the Environment Hawai`i lawsuit, the public is left to surmise that she was not privy to the problems addressed therein and therefore was ignorant of the requirements of Chapter 92. Moreover, two of the board members in attendance are trained lawyers, including the chair. Is the public to believe that they, too, must be presumed to have no particular knowledge of Chapter 92, since they were not personally involved in the litigation?
If this is the case, it means that the state is paying a heavy toll — court costs and attorney’s fees for the prevailing parties, running into the tens of thousands of dollars — so that just one deputy attorney general may be educated as to the law’s plain meaning. And that is over and above the fact that the same deputy attorney general was on the public payroll throughout the time she was vainly attempting to defend the board’s indefensible actions.
All in all, this is the stuff of which injunctions are made. If Mike Wilson or any other board member should read this, we would urge you to take seriously your oath of office and all the responsibilities it entails. Keeping meetings public is certainly not the least of them.
Brooks Harper: A Friend of Hawai`i
The unexpected death of Brooks Harper has left members of the environmental and regulatory communities in Hawai`i stunned. Brooks was field supervisor for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Islands Office in Honolulu.
Although he often found himself defending FWS policies against the charges of environmental advocates that they were weak or did not go far enough, everyone who worked with Brooks regarded him as an honest broker. He never gave anyone the least reason to suspect his love for the environment and dedication to its protection.
More than an armchair regulator, Brooks loved to be outdoors and in the water. Indeed, he was recovering from a diving accident when he died.
He is survived by his wife, Joan, and two sons. Environment Hawai`i extends to them and to Brooks’ colleagues at the Fish and Wildlife Service our heartfelt condolences.
A memorial fund has been established for the education of his sons. To contribute, send checks made out to “Bret and Blaise Harper” to Robert P. Smith, head of the Honolulu FWS office at P.O. Box 50088, Honolulu HI 96850.
Volume 9, Number 2 August 1998
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