Regents keep Dobelle’s
evaluation secret
The University of Hawaii Board of Regents will not discuss UH President Evan Dobelle's secret annual evaluation at its meeting tomorrow because "we feel the evaluation was completed in November," Chairwoman Patricia Lee said yesterday.
Lee said last month that the board would talk with Dobelle about his evaluation at the January meeting. However, the evaluation is not on the agenda for this month's board meeting.
Dobelle, through former university spokesman Paul Costello, said last month that he did not feel the evaluation was completed and requested "an opportunity to come to agreement with the current board on this issue."
The board approved the evaluation and a set of performance goals for the university president in November after a lengthy and contentious evaluation process that began in May.
The evaluation appears to be a catalyst in a rift that has developed between the 12 members of the board, which is in charge of overseeing governance of the university, and Dobelle, who is in charge of running the UH system.
In an e-mail to the Star-Bulletin last month, Costello said Dobelle objects to the evaluation because it began in May but continued after new regents were appointed by Gov. Linda Lingle. Costello said Dobelle's evaluation is a personnel matter and does not have to be made public.
Several regents have said Dobelle has threatened to sue if the evaluation is made public.
Lee and a university spokeswoman would not say what, if anything, has changed in the last month.
UH spokeswoman Carolyn Tanaka said Dobelle is out of town on a personal matter and would not be at tomorrow's committee meetings, but may be at Friday's meeting of the full board.
The state Office of Information Practices has requested a copy of the evaluation and performance goals so it can review whether the document should be released to the public.
OIP is reviewing the decision to keep it secret after the Star-Bulletin and other news media organizations were denied copies and requested a formal opinion.
OIP Director Leslie Kondo said his office needs to see the evaluation so it can weigh whether Dobelle's privacy interest is outweighed by the public's right to know about his performance.
"We need to understand more precisely what privacy interests will be impacted by the disclosure of the documents," Kondo said.
He said it is his understanding that the regents will consider making a copy of the evaluation available for OIP review after this week's meetings.
Walter Kirimitsu, UH legal counsel, said the university would respond to OIP after this week's meetings. However, he did not say if the response would include a copy of the evaluation.