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Sunshine Law and the County Charter's open meeting S provision. So what the county council does would be a very good guide to follow. (laughter) PETE L'ORANGE: We can convene? (laughter) FRED GIANNINI: No, I mean not convene. FRANCINE DUNCAN: You feel the same rules apply, the general convening? FRED GIANNINI: The Sunshine Law and the county open meeting provision both apply equally to the county council, the charter commission, and all of the other boards of the county such as the Liquor Commission, the Planning Commission and all of them. When in doubt as far as the open meetings, the preferable thing to do is to always go on the side of openness. If you have any ideas about deliberating or taking testimony, always do it at the public meeting. Make sure that as much of this is carried out in public meetings--that's the purpose of the county charter's open meeting provision and also the state Sunshine Law. FRANCINE DUNCAN: Fred, do you have any case history where commissions similar to ours may have violated Chapter 92? FRED GIANNINI: There are a number of Attorney General 41, opinions in which advisory opinions have been asked by the Attorney General's office as to whether certain things violate the Sunshine Law. There was a, I believe, one opinion it had to do with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. And it stated that, what they were proposing was to take the members of the OHA Board--take them off on a sorta of like a retreat weekend at which they would discuss the way in which their office was going to work, of how their board was going to work, and also discuss policies to pursue in the future. The Attorney General's office said that that would have been--that they should not do this because that would be a violation of the state Sunshine Law. Anytime in which you discuss the policy among the people who have the responsibility to come out with the decisions whether it be legislative like the county council, or something, or this commission which is given a specific job, those should not be done in closed meetings but should be done in open meetings. If you want to find specific ones look at the handout I gave you and read some of the sections down at the bottom in the fine print beneath each section you will see cases referred to. I didn't reproduce those cases but some of these things encapsulate what a court decision was or an attorney general's opinion and you can go to those opinions 110 7