House Committee on Judiciary (JUD) - chair: Keith-Agaran, vice chair: Rhoads

Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 2:00 p.m.. Conference Room 325

Testifier: Jean Aoki, Legislative Committee, LWV of Hawaii

Click here to view HB640

The League of Women Voters of Hawaii strongly supports HB 640 relating to public agency meetings which provides that any action taken by a board in an executive meeting shall be reported to the public when the board reconvenes in the open meeting at which the executive meeting is held. Especially for boards that seem to conduct so much of their meetings in executive session excluding those like the Ethics Commission which deals with alleged cases of misconduct and illegal activities, the public would like to know what, if any, actions were taken outside of the open meeting. When situations are such that the public is willing to wait for the executive sessions to end to be apprised of any actions or even lack of actions, surely, this can be explained very simply instead of coming out and adjourning so abrupt.y as is done at times. We feel the passage of HB 640 and its implementatin wold increase the public's understanding of the boards' objectives and interpretations of the problems and solutions before them. Thank you for hearing this bill.