2003-02 OIP Opinion Re Executive Meetings

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b Mr. Al Konishi Mr. Lincoln S.T. Ashida July 14, 2003 Page 5 For example, section 92-5(a)(4), Hawaii Revised Statutes, authorizes the Council to consult in an executive meeting with its attorney, a non- council member. Similarly, a reasonable interpretation of section 92-5(a)(3), Hawaii Revised Statutes, would allow a non-board member negotiator to _ attend an executive meeting to, for instance, advise the board as to the progress of on-going labor negotiations. Section 92-5(a)(1), Hawaii Revised Statutes, authorizes boards to consider personal information relating to professional and vocational licensees and implicitly authorizes necessary Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' personnel and licensees to attend. Section 92-5(a)(2), Hawaii Revised Statutes, permits the Council to consider certain personnel matters in an executive meeting. For the Council to effectively consider such matters, non-council members must be allowed to attend to provide relevant information and recommendations. Any different interpretation would render section 92-5(a), Hawaii Revised Statutes, meaningless. Other jurisdictions have similarly interpreted executive meeting statutes to permit non-board members to attend meetings closed to the public. For instance, the question of whether a school superintendent's presence at a meeting caused the meeting to lose its "executive" character was addressed in Dathe v. Wildrose Sch. Dist., 217 N.W.2d 781 (N.D. 1994). The North Dakota court noted that, so long as the public is excluded and only those selected persons whom the board invites attend, the meeting retains its "executive" character. The court stated: We believe that the presence of the superintendent was proper and that no error was committed in allowing the superintendent to state the reasons for his recommendation that the contracts not be renewed. Such a procedure would seem to be more conducive to fairness than, for example, merely reading a statement from the superintendent in his absence. Id. at 787.4 4 In 1997, after the Dathe case was decided,North Dakota amended its statute to define closed meeting: "all or part of an exempt meeting that a public entity in its discretion has not opened to the public, although any person necessary to carry out or further the purposes of a closed meeting may be admitted." N.D. Cent. Code §44-04-17.1.1. (2001). OIP Op. Ltr. No. 03-12