Posted 08/22/2011
The Public Land Development Corporation, established by Act 55 of the 2011 Legislature, had to cancel its first scheduled meeting because it did not comply with the state’s Sunshine Law.
The meeting was set for August 22 at 2:30 p.m. Environment Hawai`i learned of it just a few hours in advance of its scheduled start. A call was made immediately to the state Office of Information Practices, alerting it that the meeting, if held, would be in violation of Section 92-7, HRS, because no agenda had been mailed to members of the public who had requested such notice. By law, agencies must provide such notice to anyone requesting it, as Environment Hawai`i had in mid-July.
OIP attorney Jennifer Brooks discussed the issue with staff at the Department of Land and Natural Resources and with a deputy attorney general handling DLNR issues. (The PLDC is administratively housed within the DLNR.)
Less than an hour before the meeting was to start, the DLNR notified Environment Hawai`i that the meeting had been tentatively re-scheduled for Monday, August 29.
The agenda for the cancelled meeting called for the five-member board to discuss hiring of an executive director and staff and possible rules, among other things.
For more information on the PLDC, see the lead item in this month’s cover story.
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