Your ‘right to know’
The League of Women Voters of Hawaii County appreciates all of the organizations and individuals who are dedicated to keeping and improving transparency and open government at all levels in Hawaii.
Sunshine Week, March 11-17 (www.sunshineweek.org), is a nationwide nonpartisan effort to encourage the public to promote open government and recognize the achievements and identify the setbacks in efforts to protect a citizen’s “right to know.”
So far during this 29th session of the state Legislature, more than 108 bills were introduced to amend either the Uniform Information Practices Act or the “Sunshine Law” (Chapter 92).
The League of Women Voters of Hawaii testified on many of these bills, which address important issues including timely notices of public meetings, minutes of public meetings and public records; access to public meetings; the content of public records; and increasing the efficiency of the Office of Information Practices.
So far, Act 64 HB 165, relating to public meetings, was signed into law June 29, 2017. The law requires state and county boards to make public board packets available to the public at the time they are distributed to board members, issue electronic notices of meetings, post meeting minutes online and allow meeting notices to be kept in recorded form.
Act 165 SB 572, relating to information practices, was signed into law July 11, 2017. It authorizes the Office of Information Practices to adopt rules necessary to administer the Uniform Information Practices Act.
The people’s trust and confidence in our government and institutions depends on public access, transparency and timely information about our government.
As state and local elected officials consider additional laws this year that could impact the Sunshine Law and Uniform Practices Act, the LWV of Hawaii County encourages the public to join in efforts to shine the light on government throughout the year.
Rosemarie Muller
President, LWVHC
http://lwv-hawaii.com/hawaii.htm