STAR-BULLETIN / 2004 A ruling by the state Office of Information Practices will keep former UH-Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert's evaluation secret.

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State reverses opinion to
release Englert report

The state Office of Information Practices has determined that a consultant's evaluation of former University of Hawaii at Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert can be kept secret, reversing a June 16 opinion letter.

"Our June 16 opinion was based upon the apparently erroneous characterization of the evaluation by the general counsel's office as a separate and completed evaluation rather than a resource used by Interim President (David) McClain for the preparation of his own evaluation of the chancellor," OIP attorney Cathy Takase wrote in an Aug. 17 letter to UH general counsel Walter Kirimitsu.

Based on a new argument submitted by UH lawyers, the Aug. 17 letter said the evaluation falls under the "deliberative process privilege," which allows an agency to withhold certain records that are "predecisional" and "deliberative, i.e., 'a direct part of the deliberative process in that it makes recommendations or expresses opinions on legal or policy matters.'"

The evaluation was prepared by James Koch, a former president of Old Dominion University who was hired as a consultant to McClain for Englert's November 2004 evaluation. According to the OIP letter, McClain used Koch's evaluation to help him set goals and identify areas of improvement for Englert.

Englert's contract was not renewed after a subsequent evaluation in May.

UH attorneys had argued that Koch's evaluation was not McClain's evaluation, was "simply part of the process but not a significant factor in the decision" not to extend Englert's contract, and thus not subject to disclosure.

UH-Manoa journalism professor Bev Keever had requested Englert's evaluation under the state open-records law.