State Sunshine Law Update - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

"Board Business" Elements • Within the board's authority • On current or future agenda The first element is that board business must be "within the board's authority." If a matter is something that is purely within the Chair's prerogative, this is not board business. For example, many boards give their Chair the sole prerogative to set the agenda, which is not decided on by the board as a whole, so members can ask the Chair outside of a meeting to place an item on an upcoming agenda. Similarly, many administrative matters, such as travel arrangements for neighbor island board members, are not matters within the board's authority. Purely social chit chat is also not considered board business. But if a matter is about a specific issue that the board is or will be dealing with, then it clearly would be within the board's authority, and board members cannot talk to each other about such matters outside of a meeting. The second element is that the board matter must be an issue on the current or a future or reasonably foreseeable future agenda. An issue is no longer board business once the board has finished dealing with it or does not anticipate it coming back before the board. But if it is an issue that can be reasonably expected to be on a current or near future agenda, then it could be board business that should not be discussed outside of a meeting. For example, 01 has issued an opinion involving whether the Hawaii County Council had violated the Sunshine Law by not noticing a meeting where a volcanologist had briefed them about Mauna Loa's possible eruption. Because the Council had no authority over the volcano and there was only a speculative possibility that future emergency funding would be required at some point, OIP held that this was not reasonably foreseeable board business at the time. Of course, in a new factual situation involving an imminent threat, OIP's opinion could be different. 7