OIP needs money, not mandates

The Office of Information Practices (OIP) is the neutral state agency that promotes government transparency and accountability through Hawaii’s open records and open meetings laws. Despite declining resources and an increasing workload, OIP resolves 93 percent of all requests for assistance in the same year, if not the same day. To do more work faster, OIP needs people and money, not unfunded mandates.

OIP was created in 1988 to administer the Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA), which provides access to the public records of all state, county, and independent agencies such as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and University of Hawaii. In 1998, OIP was also charged with administering the Sunshine Law, which is the open meetings law applicable to government boards in Hawaii.

Although OIP’s responsibilities and workload have more than doubled, OIP has half the resources it had over two decades ago. At its height 24 years ago, when it administered only the UIPA, OIP had 15 authorized positions and a budget of $827,537, equivalent today to $1,374,543. Even after assuming additional responsibility for the Sunshine Law, OIP’s resources have severely declined. For 2018, OIP has only 8.5 positions and was appropriated $576,855 for personnel and operations.

Comparable good government agencies with lesser jurisdiction have more positions and appropriations for personnel costs alone: the state Ethics Commission (11 positions; $944,402); the state ombudsman (14 positions; $1,256,599); and the state auditor (37 positions; $2,630,927).

After decades of underfunding, budget and position cuts, and furloughs, OIP in 2011 had a backlog of the most difficult formal cases dating back to 1999 that had not been resolved by four prior OIP administrations. Meanwhile, OIP’s workload continued to increase with a doubling of new formal case filings and an average 49 percent increase in informal inquiries from 2011 to 2017.

Additionally, OIP had to overcome a critical challenge to its authority following lengthy litigation by a county, which was finally resolved with legislative action in 2012: the adoption of new administrative rules in 2013, and changes to how OIP writes its opinions to meet the new standard of review for agency appeals to the courts.

Despite these substantial increases in workload, reductions in workforce, and challenges to overcome, OIP has reduced the age of its oldest cases requiring opinions from 12 to 3 years and resolves 93 percent of all formal and informal requests for assistance in the same year, with 77 percent typically resolved the same day.

While a few people who want written opinions must wait their turn as OIP completes older cases first, they have the option to get informal advice the same day through OIP’s Attorney of the Day service. A statutory mandate that OIP provide opinions faster would be unrealistic and ineffective without a dedicated source of increased funding, additional attorneys, and time to train them.

Such a mandate also ignores other necessary duties that OIP performs, which include proactively providing extensive training to help keep agencies and boards in compliance with the laws and testifying on legislative proposals that impact open government rights.

This year, OIP’s priorities are to update its 1998 rules regarding record request procedures and fees, add new rules for personal record requests, revise its 2013 appeals rules, and create rules training materials. Under consideration are rule changes to allow OIP to more expeditiously resolve appeals and requests for opinions. While rulemaking is extremely time-consuming, OIP believes that it is needed to enable government agencies, including OIP, to better meet their obligations to provide open access to public records and meetings.

Cheryl Kakazu Park is director of the state Office of Information Practices.