CHC 1979-02-13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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But Judge Kabota ruled in favor of the Big Island Press Club. The Big Island Press Club ' s position was that this section prohibited an employee of the county from revealing information which was of a pertinent nature, though of private nature, to uncover something that might be improper or illegal or immoral. But, unfortunately, that decision went much further because by ruling this section as unconstitutional , the second aspect of the language, "or use such information for the personal gain or benefit of himself or anyone else", went out the window, too. I dont think anyone wants any county employee using any personal or confidential information for personal gain. Fortunately, though, that problem can be corrected by referring to subsections (d) and (e) , but, at any rate, Judge Doi declared subsection (c) unconstit- utional. So, we have to delete subsection (c) from the Charter because of the ruling of Judge Doi when he was on the bench here. The language that is in quotes in Number.1, "Thissection shall be construed together with Section 13-20 (b) of the Charter of the County of Hawaii. The Board shall make an affirmative or negative finding that the subject involves personal matters affecting the privacy of an individual . " That is almost a verbat ,m, quote from Judge Kubota decision and I don ' t know that that goes in the Charter but that it:;goes inthe,code. Section 13-20(b) is, you may have noted, has to do with closed meetings. Open and closed meetings . Judge_Kubota ,has ruled that we should comply with a stricter interpretation, that is, everything must be open . All meetings must be open. The only time a meeting can be closed, and, this , of course, referring specifically to the Board of Ethics meetings. The only time a Board of Ethics meeting can be closed is if the content of the meeting, or the subject matter of the meeting, deals with the privacy of an individual. Which is the language of Section 13-20(b) of your Charter. But first the Board of Ethics , and this really goes for any board or commission. First, they have to make a determination that something is, in fact, affecting the privacy of an individual before they can go into a closed session. So that whole first part, Number 1 , there, has to do with closed meetings, open meetings and using confidential information to one's gain. I think I am going to recommend that Mr. Miyashiro rewrite this. Break it down. If you are interested in being supplied with Article 8 of the code, I think we can see that you get it, and then could schedule another hearing with Mr. Miyashiro. -9-