Margaret Wille alerted me today that the Hawaii County Council is going to try to restore the June 16 council chair changes (that were allegedly tainted by a Sunshine law violation) at their August 5th county council hearing in Hilo. (Resolution 218-09)
It appears this is political maneuvering is perfectly legal. The TRO granted by Judge Ibarra allows the council to reorganize but blocks any further legislative action between August 5-15,2009.However I hope the council rejects this do over. The public testimony was largely against the council reorganizing during the first go around. I would bet that hasn’t changed one bit since June 16.
Update: I received this e-mail from Chuck Flaherty regarding this upcoming council action :
“On Aug. 4th in a Special Council meeting at 8AM, there will be a vote to reverse the council reorganization that occurred on June 16th.
Then, in the regular council meeting on Aug. 5, Enriques has introduced Resolution 218-09 which proposes to reinstate the same change that occurred on June 16th. “
July 31st, 2009 at 6:40 PM
So long as council members don’t engage in serial one-to-one discussion of how they will vote (like they did last time), this vote and the the resulting reorganization will be in compliance with the Sunshine Law. A pyrrhic victory for the WHT…