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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommunication No. 2025-02 HB686 and SB 869 and Community Development Plan Action CommitteesNeighborhood Boards, Community Action Committees, and the Sunshine Law HB 686 Relating to Community Outreach Boards https://legiscan.com/HI/bill/HB686/2025 The House sponsors are: Representative Jeanne Kapela [D] Primary, Representative Kirstin Kahaloa [D] Primary, Representative Amy Perruso [D] SB 869 Relating to Community Outreach Boards https://legiscan.com/HI/bill/SB869/2025 The Senate sponsors are: Senator Dru Kanuha [D] Primary, Senator Stanley Chang [D] Primary, Senator Angus McKelvey [D] Primary, Senator Mike Gabbard [D] Cosponsor, Senator Les Ihara [D] Cosponsor BACKGROUND Neighborhood boards and community action committees serve their communities by providing access to information and increasing and encouraging effective citizen participation in local government. Members strive to build partnerships with community members and governmental and community-based organizations to implement policies and actions that have been identified within the neighborhood or community plans. What is the Sunshine Law? The Sunshine Law is Hawaii’s open meetings law. The law is codified in Part I of Chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS). What is the general policy and intent of the Sunshine Law? The intent of the Sunshine Law is to open up governmental processes to public scrutiny and participation by requiring State and county boards to conduct their business as openly as possible. The Legislature expressly declared in the statute that “it is the policy of this State that the formation and conduct of public policy — the discussions, deliberations, decisions, and actions of governmental agencies — shall be conducted as openly as possible.” But, in 2008, before the adoption of the County of Hawaii’s Community Development Plans or the creation of the Island’s CDP Action Committees, the State Legislature added a new section to the State Sunshine Law. Part VII, chapter 92.81-83, HRS, is titled “Neighborhood Board”. Although this 2008 amendment to chapter 92, HRS applies to all Counties in the State of Hawai’i, the actual term “neighborhood boards” does not have a definition by State law and the language inadvertently refers only to the program in the City and County of Honolulu. This has resulted in obstacles for similar advisory community outreach boards and committees in other Counties including the Community Development Plan Action Committees in the County of Hawai’i. The purpose of this legislation “Relating to Community Outreach Boards (2025)”, is to adopt minor amendments to “Neighborhood Boards and 92.81-83 HRS” to make it applicable for similar advisory community outreach boards and committees in other Counties in the State of Hawaiʻi. https://law.justia.com/codes/hawaii/title-8/chapter-92/ Communication No. 2025-02 92.81-83 HRS PART VII. NEIGHBORHOOD BOARD ▪ 92-81 Neighborhood board; notice and agenda; public input; quorum. ▪ 92-82 Permitted interactions of neighborhood board members. ▪ 92-83 Neighborhood board meeting; unanticipated events; public interest. Below is a summary of Chapter 92, PART VII. Neighborhood Board section of the Sunshine Law from State Office of Information Practices. Neighborhood Boards and 92.81-83 HRS May a board hear testimony or presentations without a quorum? (neighborhood boards only) Section 92-81, HRS, requires a quorum for the board to conduct official board business; to engage in discussions prior to and related to voting; and to vote to validate official acts of the board. No quorum is required for the board to receive information or testimony, as long as board members report at the next meeting on the matters presented as information or testimony. Moreover, when the neighborhood board receives testimony or information without a quorum, it cannot make a decision at that time, but must instead place the item on the agenda to report on it at the next meeting. Section 92- 15, HRS, states that a majority of the members to which a board is entitled shall constitute a quorum to do business if the board’s quorum requirement is not otherwise specified by law or ordinance. May a board hear public input on matters not listed on the agenda? (neighborhood boards only) Neighborhood boards are allowed by section 92-81, HRS, to receive “public input” on matters not specifically listed on the agenda. To take advantage of this provision, the neighborhood board must list on its agenda a time period for public input on matters other than agenda items. No decision can be made at that meeting on a matter not listed on the agenda but raised during public input. Deliberation and decision-making on such matters can occur only at later meeting of the neighborhood board, and only if the matter is listed on that meeting’s agenda. Can a neighborhood board discuss an item not on its agenda when raised by a member of the public? (for neighborhood boards only) Yes, but it cannot make a decision on the item. Under section 92-81, HRS, a neighborhood board may include on its agenda an opportunity for “public input” on matters not specifically identified on the agenda. To provide the opportunity for public input on matters not on the agenda, the neighborhood board must specify a time period on its agenda for public input. The neighborhood board can discuss a matter raised during public input, but it cannot make a decision at that same meeting on any matter not listed on the agenda but raised during public input, and must instead wait to act a later meeting whose agenda specifically includes that matter. Other Meetings (neighborhood boards only). Under section 92-82, HRS, as amended in 2015, any number of neighborhood board members may attend meetings or presentations located on Oahu on matters relating to official board business, so long as the meeting is open to the public, does not charge a fee or require registration, and is not specifically and exclusively organized for or directed toward the board members. While neighborhood board members may ask questions relating to official board business of persons other than their fellow members, no member can make a commitment to vote on any of the issues discussed.