HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommunication No. 2023-16 T. Keeney Email to County Council (Removal of CDP Action Committee member email addresses from the District CDP websites_8.21.23)From:tawn@honokaapeople.com
To:Kimball, Heather; Kagiwada, Jennifer; Lee Loy, Sue; Kierkiewicz, Ashley; Kanealii-Kleinfelder, Matt; Galimba,Michelle M.; Villegas, Rebecca; Inaba, Holeka; Evans, Cynthia F.W.
Cc:Planning CDP; Surprenant, April; Roth, Mitch D
Subject:Removal of CDP Action Committee member email addresses from the District CDP websites
Date:Monday, August 21, 2023 2:14:24 PM
Dear County Council members,
The following communication is a revision of the note which I sent to you on
Friday, August 18. It differs only in the addition of item 8) below:
8.Standard IT response to ensuring privacy of personal email addresses of group
members is to set up an email forwarding domain which encompasses each group
member and forwards mail addressed to the names on that domain to the personal
email address of the member. For instance, mail sent to the CDP website listed email
address of < tawn.keeney@cdp.actioncommittee.com > would automatically be
forwarded to my personal email address. An estimate of cost to the County
of domain forwarding service might be $15 per month. The fact that Planning
neglected this option raises the question that the motive for the address removal
might actually be less apparent than the stated 'privacy'. It is of little interest to me
what those motives might be so long as the Public access to communicate directly
with me and my Action Committee colleagues is restored.
The only other change is that note is taken that the Planning Department has also
removed the identification of the current Chair of the Action Committees on their
website in addition to removal of the member email addresses.
The completed communication is as follows:
Council member Heather KimballCouncil member Jennifer Kagiwada
Council member Sue Lee LoyCouncil member Ashley Kierkiewicz
Council member Kanealii-KleinfelderCouncil member Michelle Galimba
Council member Rebecca VillegasCouncil member Dr. Holeka Inaba
Council member Cindy Evans
Dear trusted representatives of the Citizens of Hawaii County,
I am writing this note in response to two events which have disturbed me deeply as Chair
of the Hamakua Community Development Plan Action Committee. I believe these eventsreflect a broken relationship between the Planning Department and the five district
Community Development Plan Action Committees which the department is tasked toadminister.
Event #1: The Planning Department has removed the email addresses of the ActionCommittee members from each of the five District Community Development Plan websites. Identification of the chairperson of the committee was also removed. The reason given by
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Planning to my inquiry why this action had been taken is the following:
"We are looking for ways to better protect AC member’s privacy and avoid
unsolicited communications (bold print mine). Individuals looking to reach out to
CDP AC members can fill out the green contact form at the bottom of the CDP
websites and we can forward the inquiry to the respective Action Committee.”
I respond with the following comments:
1. Communication access between the Action Committee members and the
Community is at the center of the process that was envisioned in the six District
Community Development Plans. This removal of email addresses of committee
members, addresses which have been present for the 4 years of existence of theHamakua CDP AC, and probably throughout the more than 10 year history of CDP
Action Committees of other districts, significantly cripples that communication
channel, and the ‘heart’ of the CDP process.
2. When someone applies for Action Committee membership they understand that
they are being asked to be an intermediary between the communities and the county
government. They should, and do, understand that some element of their 'privacy' is
being relinquished. They should, and do, understand that accepting 'unsolicitedcommunications' is part of what service in this regard is about.
3. We, the Action Committee members have never been asked in my 4 years of AC
membership or as Hamakua chair over the past year, whether we wished, for thereasons expressed, “privacy” or “avoidance of unsolicited communication”, to have
our email addresses removed. I am confident that, if asked, we would desire our
emails to be available to the public.
4. County Council members have email addresses available to the public. Action
Committee members serve a similar function, liaison with the public, but on a district
level.
5. The other County with district level public representation is Honolulu with its
Neighborhood Boards. The email addresses of these many hundreds of
Neighborhood Board members, almost without exception, are available on the
Neighborhood Board website.
6. The Planning Dept. points to a messaging mechanism, directed to their
department, (the ‘green contact form’ mentioned above) available to the public on the
District CDP website. Over my four years of service, during which time the abovecontact form has been present, I have never had Planning forward a ‘comment or
question’ from that form to me, or heard from other Hamakua AC members of receipt
of such ‘comments’. On the other hand I have had multiple ‘comments, requests or
questions’ presented by the public to me via email. It is unknown if these were
subsequent to discovery of my email address from the CDP website. I do not wish to
have the public’s communication with me ‘curated’ by the Planning Department. I
would be hesitant to trust that a communication such as this one would reach each of
the Committee members.
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7. These email addresses have been removed at a time of the greatest need of the
public's access to representatives in the County governmental process. The
Governor’s Housing Proclamation has just been announced, the impacts of which will
be felt deeply within our communities and will elicit vigorous response, whether
supportive or resistant. The Hawaii County General Plan revision is to be released to
the public for comment this summer. The Zoning and Subdivision Plan revision will
be released shortly after that. This timing of removal of the Action Committee emailaddresses raises questions of subversion of the Action Committee’s role. This
coincidence in timing arouses questioning of the Planning Department’s motives,
though their stated intent was protection of our ‘privacy’ and shielding us from
‘unsolicited communication’.
8. Standard IT response to ensuring privacy of personal email addresses of group
members is to set up an email forwarding domain which encompasses each group
member and forwards mail addressed to the names on that domain to the personalemail address of the member. For instance, mail sent to the CDP website listed email
address of < tawn.keeney@cdp.actioncommittee.com > would automatically be
forwarded to my personal email address. An estimate of cost to the County
of domain forwarding service might be $15 per month. The fact that Planning
neglected this option raises the question that the motive for the address removal
might actually be less apparent than the stated 'privacy'. It is of little interest to me
what those motives might be so long as the Public access to communicate directly
with me and my Action Committee colleagues is restored.
9. I have requested Heather Kimball, Council representative from Hamakua District,
my home, on two occasions over three weeks to introduce a bill or resolution into
Council to require the Planning Department to restore the email addresses of AC
members to the CDP website, and have had no response. I therefore take this
request to each member of the Council as this removal of addresses has occurred to
each District’s websites. Please introduce a measure into Council, a Bill or
Resolution, to require the Planning Department to restore email addresses of ActionCommittee members to the District CDP websites.
Event #2: The Planning Department has refused to inform me, following my request
as Chair of the Hamakua CDP Action Committee, of the email addresses of the three
new Hamakua Action Committee members installed through Council ratification two
weeks ago. Previously, the Action Committee member phone numbers and emailaddresses were presented in the Resource Guide given with installation. It has been
my duty, over the year of my chairmanship, to arrange and adjust as necessary, the
meeting schedule. It is my duty to request agenda items from other members and set
the agenda. Fulfillment of these duties requires at least monthly communication withthe AC members. The reason cited for denial of my request for the new members’s
email addresses was “in order to help committee members stay in accordance with
Sunshine Law.” (See brief email exchange below.)
Over my four years of AC membership I have heard occasional reference to, and
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experienced directly, what was termed ‘weaponization of Sunshine Law’. The above
cited reason for denial of my request appears to me to be a most blatant example of
that. The Planning Department knows very well that board or commission member
communication enabling scheduling and setting of agenda is exempt from Sunshine
Law restrictions. It has been a requirement of my chairmanship over this year. TheHamakua AC has had its past three meetings cancelled due to lack of quorum. The
congestion of potential agenda items and new request from Sierra Club for
presentation regarding the Governor’s Housing Proclamation (in conjunction with my
effort to find a co-presenter representing the Governors Housing Office) suggestsneed of a reschedule of the cancelled August meeting, for which I need the email
addresses and have been denied.
A later communication will describe in detail what I refer to as a ‘brokenrelationship’ between Planning and the CDP Action Committees, a fracture going far
beyond Planning’s acknowledged and understood lack of personnel resources for
comprehensive CDP AC administration. The intent of this letter is introduction of a
resolution or motion into County Council which results in restoration of the emailaddresses of the members of the district Action Committees on their respective CDP
websites. Reasons 1) through 8) above should be sufficient to justify this request.
Thank you for consideration of introduction of this measure,
Tawn Keeney MD
Chair, Hamakua Community Development Plan Action Committee
Email exchange with Planner (Aug. 14):
TK: Hi Maryam. I understand that the Orientation of new members to the Hamakua
CDP AC will be on August 22. I would like to send email to the complete group
inquiring about scheduling an August meeting for a date early after the 22nd. Couldyou give to me the email addresses of the new members. Thanks, Tawn
MP: Mahalo for the reminder, Tawn! I will reach out to the committee regarding the
next scheduled meeting in order to help committee members stay in accordance withSunshine Law. According to the established cadence, the next meeting is September
13. Mahalo nui, Maryam
TK: Maryam, I need the email addresses of the three new members for scheduling. Iam not relinquishing that responsibility to you. Thank you for your help with this.
Tawn
—- No further reply forthcoming.
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