2022-01-20 Leeward Planning Commission Minutes

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Deputy Corporation Counsel Schlueter reiterated the statement noted in the agenda that Act 220 of the Session Laws of Hawaii 2021 amended the Sunshine Law to allow meetings to be remotely conducted online as they have been under the COVID-19 emergency proclamation. She said that the law update provides the following three meeting options: 1) a meeting in person at one site, which is the traditional method and has always been allowed; 2) a meeting in person at multiple sites that are connected with technology, which has also always been allowed, and for example, the County Council used to meet this way on both sides of the island; and, 3) a new type of remote meeting where board members and the public are allowed to participate by electronic means, with at least one in-person site available to the public and/or any board members who wish to participate in person. Ms. Schlueter noted that the in-person site requirement is suspended by the Governor's most recent proclamation through the end of February; after that, if the proclamation ends then, there will be an in-person site that will allow the public to testify from. Ms. Schlueter said that another major item is that board members must announce who else is in their remote location whom they may interact with; for example, if they are at home and there are family members there who may walk by or interact with them, it is important to announce who is there, but if they are in an office building, they don't have to announce everyone in that office. She noted that if the Commission goes into executive session, the Commissioners will need to be sure that there are no other people in the room with them or they have taken measures to protect the executive session; otherwise, the attorney-client privilege that the Commission is afforded could be affected. Ms. Schlueter also noted that the Commission must have a minimum of a quorum visible by video at all times. She said that in case of technical difficulties, the meeting is to recess for up to 30 minutes while they attempt to restore the connection; if the connection of at least a quorum cannot be re-established, the meeting has to be concluded at that time. She said that there is an additional option where the meeting can still be resumed by other electronic means, a different link or at a later time; however, that has to be planned in advance, and the information has to be published as part of the agenda. She added that if the Commission starts running into technology issues, that is an option that they can consider for future meetings. Ms. Schlueter concluded her presentation by referring the Commissioners to the document titled "In-Depth Sunshine Law Requirements for Multi-site and Remote Meetings, Effective January 1, 2022"published by the state Office of Information Practices, to which the hyperlink is provided in the agenda. There were no questions from the Commissioners. This item ended at 10:35 a.m. 3 Leeward Planning Commission January 20,2022,Meeting Minutes