The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Maui County Council violated the state open meetings "Sunshine Law" in approving a Wailea development, but declined to invalidate the county’s approval for the residential community.
The court instead sent the case back to Maui Circuit Court to determine the amount of attorney fees for the five residents who filed the lawsuit contending the law was violated.
Lance Collins, attorney for the residents, estimated he might be seeking about $150,000 to $200,000 in fees from Maui County and the developer, Honuaula Partners LLC.
Jonathan Steiner, Honuaula Partners’ attorney, said they were "pleased that the court found the change in the zoning ordinance remains valid."
Collins called the decision a "watershed" ruling. He said it was the first time the high court directly interpreted the state’s Sunshine Law.
He said the court definitively ruled in its 80-page opinion that "if a public body is confronted with conducting its meeting in more than one way, it needs to choose the way that promotes openness and transparency."
Collins said the high court found that the circulation of memorandums during the County Council’s first reading of the development bills in 2008 violated the law.
According to Collins, the memos proposed amendments of the bills.
The high court did not throw out the ordinances because it found the violations did not occur during the final action approving the bills, Collins said.
"I’m excited and I’m encouraged," Collins said of the ruling. "And if I get attorney fees, our clients are going out to dinner and celebrate."
Mary Blaine Johnston, Maui deputy corporation counsel, said the Council and county did not think circulating the memos was a violation of the Sunshine Law, but she called the ruling "fair" and "well thought out." She said the decision provides guidelines in dealing with the law in the future.
The residents were challenging approvals for a residential community on 670 acres in Wailea.
Collins said there hasn’t been any groundbreaking for the project, and the land remains undeveloped.
