The Office of Information Practices (OIP) would like to thank the Hawaii State Legislature for passing today’s landmark legislation allowing Sunshine Law boards to remotely conduct public meetings.

OIP developed three draft proposals before the session, and five bills containing OIP’s proposal have introduced this session, and what ultimately emerged was Senate Bill 1034, Senate Draft 1, House Draft 2, Conference Draft 1.

This bill adds a new option to the Sunshine Law on January 1, 2022, which would allow boards to hold remote meetings via interactive conference technology (ICT), such as online meeting platforms like Zoom or WebEx, teleconferences, videoconference, and voice over internet protocol.

The bill would also amend the existing option for boards to hold a public meeting at two or more physical locations connected by ICT, would require all meeting notices to list the board’s contact information for submitting testimony, and would require OIP to report on the implementation of remote meetings before the 2023 session.  OIP will recommend that the bill be signed by Governor David Ige.

OIP has prepared the attached summary explaining the bill’s provisions.  The summary, various bill drafts, committee reports, testimony have also been posted on OIP’s legislation page.