Leaders with the state Office of Information Practices, in a letter to Kaua‘i Police Commission Chair Michael Ching, said members of the Kaua‘i County Council violated the state’s open-meetings Sunshine Law while holding an executive session at a meeting earlier
Leaders with the state Office of Information Practices, in a letter to Kaua‘i Police Commission Chair Michael Ching, said members of the Kaua‘i County Council violated the state’s open-meetings Sunshine Law while holding an executive session at a meeting earlier this year.
According to the letter, dated April 14 and signed by OIP Staff Attorney Wintehn K.T. Park, councilmembers violated the Sunshine Law by holding a meeting in a private, executive session purported to be for one purpose, then discussing other business while away from the public eye.
The letter continued that, while in executive session to discuss a possible investigation of the officials in the Kaua‘i Police Department, councilmembers debated on the purpose of the meeting, and whether or not it should be shielded from the public.
“The situation raises the question of how the council can vote to discuss a particular issue in executive session when the particular issue has not been identified,” Park wrote.
Park in his letter then addressed whether information that should be discussed in public was instead debated in private.
While lawyers in the Office of the County Attorney represented to OIP attorneys prior to the session that ES 177 would be to discuss sensitive on-going investigations by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the state Office of the Attorney General, the OIP lawyers found after reviewing the minutes that neither of these investigations was discussed.
Instead, Park wrote, councilmembers discussed “(1) an investigation being conducted by the County of Kaua‘i Board of Ethics, (2) a police investigation which has been turned over to the County of Kaua‘i Prosecutor, and (3) a proposed investigation into the termination of a KPD recruit.”
And it’s the OIP opinion that those issues “should have been done so in a public meeting,” Park wrote.
While some information may fall under the attorney-client privilege and may be kept private, “it is our strong recommendation that the Council act to immediately remedy its violation of the Sunshine Law by making public the ES177 minutes,” Park continued.
Ching said that his initial complaint against the executive session involved the investigation into the Kaua‘i Police Commission, which is a public board.
“I testified (at that council meeting) that the purview of the Kaua‘i Police Commission is to investigate the police department, through the office of the chief of police,” Ching said. “It was said they were going to investigate the Police Commission.
“We’re a public board,” he added. Any investigation “should be made public.”
Phone calls made to each of the seven members of the County Council seeking comment were not returned yesterday, except for Mel Rapozo, who requested a copy of the OIP letter and then did not call again after that request.
The decision also brings up other questions about the meeting, namely how council-members found out about the Kaua‘i Board of Ethics investigation. Board of Ethics investigations are to remain private until a public hearing is held, according to the Kaua‘i County Charter.
Sandra Helmer, chair of the Kaua‘i Board of Ethics, said that the council referred a complaint to the Board of Ethics to investigate, so they knew about it.
But, as of press time yesterday, it was unknown exactly what the complaint was.
Councilmembers, according to the charter, must receive complaints for the record, so the complaint must have been made public at some point.
Lawyers in the Office of the County Attorney also did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.
County Public Information Officer Mary Daubert said yesterday that her office could not comment on whether Sunshine Laws were violated, or about possible legal ramifications.
Ching said he had mailed a written request to County Clerk Peter Nakamura for a copy of ES177 minutes, and reporters at The Garden Island, after verbally requesting a copy, will follow suit with a written request today.
