Reject DHHL’s bid for secrecy

An arrogant disregard for government integrity and the public trust is on full display in House Bill 2287, through which the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands seeks to conceal vital information about its operations.

It’s shameful that Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who promised transparency in his administration, has included this bill in his legislative package, at the request of the DHHL.

Abercrombie’s own Office of Information Practices opposes the bill, pointedly noting that sensitive personal information about lease holders and applicants the DHHL claims it is trying to shield with this bill is already confidential. Such information is exempt from disclosure under existing law. Moreover, the OIP, which administers Hawaii’s open-records law, took the position that the bill’s original wording was so broad that it would provide blanket confidentiality for many DHHL documents.

Given these facts, it’s understandable that DHHL’s critics are wondering what the department is trying to hide.

Providing a special exemption to the open-records law for the DHHL is exactly the wrong thing to do. This is a state department that warrants more scrutiny, not a shroud of secrecy, given its long history of inefficiency and mismanagement.

DHHL’s main mission is to manage a 200,000-acre land trust for its beneficiaries, who must be at least 50 percent Hawaiian, and to provide 99-year homestead leases, at a cost of $1 a year to the leaseholder, for residential, pastoral and farming purposes.

However, as the Star-Advertiser’s Rob Perez has reported over the past few months, DHHL programs are plagued by inefficiency and mismanagement. Disclosing information of the type that DHHL now seeks to conceal —information that Perez has repeatedly but unsuccessfully sought from DHHL — could go far to illuminate allegations of favoritism and other problems that hamper the awarding of homestead leases. In short, disclosure could compel much-needed reforms.

"There isn’t enough sunshine in that department," Curtis Crabbe, a DHHL lessee from Molokai said after testifying against the bill. "Right now, what DHHL needs is a lot of sunshine and a lot of truth."

He’s absolutely right. It is the department’s ill-served Native Hawaiian beneficiaries who most need information and answers — 26,000 people remain on the waiting list for land — but this bill is a matter of grave concern for the broader public as well. Strong open-records laws are crucial to keep government agencies accountable for the actions they take in the public’s name and on the public’s dime. Last year, DHHL received nearly $10 million from the general fund. Granting an exemption to it might inspire other state departments to seek similar treatment, a slippery slope in a state that needs greater transparency and accountability in government operations, not less.

The Senate Hawaiian Affairs Committee wisely shelved a companion measure, SB 2837, due to concerns raised by DHHL beneficiaries and others. But House Bill 2287 progressed easily in the House. That chamber’s Ocean, Marine Resources & Hawaiian Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Faye P. Hanohano, passed it out on a 5-0 vote, for consideration next by the House Judiciary Committee. Not only should that committee kill this measure, but its leadership should also make a strong statement on the importance of keeping public information public.

Sen. Clayton Hee did just that during SB 2837’s hearing before the Senate Hawaiian Affairs Committee — a highlight in an otherwise dreary week for the public’s right to know.

"Public land should be treated with as much transparency as possible because it is in the public trust and the public interest," Hee said later, after that committee had killed the Senate version. "I’m quite frankly flummoxed at why the department would seek this veil of secrecy, especially considering its troubled history."

All elected officials should share Hee’s alarm, including the governor.