Panel cited for
violating Sunshine LawThe city committee was
to come up with possible
alternative sites for a landfill
A city committee violated the state's open-meeting laws when its members decided to remove Waimanalo Gulch on the Leeward Coast as a possible alternative for a landfill site, a state agency said yesterday.
On Dec. 1, the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Landfill Siting voted to recommend four sites to be considered by the city for a possible landfill. Expanding the current landfill at Waimanalo Gulch in Kahe Valley was left off the list, a decision that led to the resignation of four committee members, including Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua).
Yesterday, the state Office of Information Practices said the committee violated open-meetings laws because some members signed a statement indicating how they would vote before the meeting. Furthermore, the OIP said, the committee also violated the laws by casting votes via e-mail to make 15 years of capacity a minimum criteria for landfill sites.
In a letter to committee members Thielen and Todd Apo, the state agency recommended that the now-disbanded committee reconvene to take action on those two issues. The OIP gives opinions on open meetings and open-records laws but has no enforcement power.
OIP Director Leslie Kondo said yesterday he doesn't believe the 15 committee members or city staff that worked with them understood that they had to abide by the Sunshine Law. He said the committee should debate the issues in an open meeting.
City Acting Refuse Division chief John Lee and spokes-woman Carol Costa said they couldn't comment on the opinion or what the city will do without guidance from the city's corporation counsel.
On Dec. 1, the citizen committee recommended four sites for consideration by the City Council: Ameron Quarry in Kailua, and Makaiwa Valley, Maili and Nanakuli on the Leeward Coast. They did not indicate a preference among the four. The vote was unanimous, but only after four members, including Thielen, resigned in protest because Waimanalo Gulch in Kahe Valley was not on the list.
Thielen said she interpreted the OIP opinion to mean that "the Dec. 1 action is invalid, with the practical result that five sites remain on the list with Waimanalo Gulch ranking at the top."
Apo, who was against leaving Waimanalo Gulch on the list, responded: "I don't know how she gets to that. There was never a decision to recommend five sites."
Apo, a vice president with Ko Olina resort, is the committee member who circulated two statements outside meetings to get member signatures as to whether they favored removing Waimanalo Gulch from the list and whether they favored recommending only one site to City Council.
Thielen asked the OIP to investigate Apo's actions. In doing so, the agency found that an e-mail from a city worker to committee members asking whether they wanted to consider sites with 10- or 15-year capacities also violated the Sunshine Law.
Apo said he has no problem with the committee reconvening if necessary.
The city is under order from the state Land Use Commission to name a site for a new landfill by June because the current permit for Waimanalo Gulch landfill expires in 2008.
