LIHU‘E — When the Kaua‘i County Council went into executive session Wednesday, The Garden Island filed a pair of requests to access government records as part of a new policy seeking greater transparency from the county. According to the council’s
LIHU‘E — When the Kaua‘i County Council went into executive session Wednesday, The Garden Island filed a pair of requests to access government records as part of a new policy seeking greater transparency from the county.
According to the council’s agenda, Executive Session 393 was convened so County Attorney Al Castillo could provide to the council a briefing on a lawsuit, County of Kaua‘i vs. Lady Ann Cruises, which arose out of Planning Department of the County of Kaua‘i vs. Patricia and Michael Sheehan.
The first of two requests, filed personally with County Clerk Peter Nakamura in Council Chambers, seeks the meeting minutes from the executive session. The Garden Island will be filing similar requests for all County Council executive sessions going forward, regardless of their content.
After the short executive session, the council wrapped up its meeting by voting to approve a request from the Office of the County Attorney for authorization to expend additional funds up to $35,000 to engage special counsel to represent the Planning Department in said lawsuit.
Earlier, the body had also approved a request from the Office of the County Attorney for authorization to expend up to $90,000 to engage bond counsel to advise the county with legal and technical advice on bond matters.
The second request, filed personally with Castillo, also in Council Chambers, seeks a full list of all approvals for expenditures for outside legal counsel from the 2007 fiscal year through the present. Castillo became county attorney earlier this year.
According to the request form, which was provided to The Garden Island by Nakamura and is available on the state Office of Information Practices Web site, the agencies “will normally respond” within 10 business days, and in “extenuating circumstances … must respond” within 20 business days.
Nakamura said council minutes do not become record until 30 days after the meeting or until they are approved by the council, whichever comes first. Furthermore, the minutes could be redacted whenever they are released if they contain confidential or other sensitive information.
See upcoming editions of The Garden Island for further coverage of these and other requests for government documents.
