Another ‘insufficient’ agenda item draws fire
Liquor commission advised to delete it, relist with more details
Kihei resident Madge Schaefer is shown testifying before the liquor commission in August. Schaefer filed a lawsuit last year over public notices for those rule changes. She asked the Liquor Control Department last week for information about proposed rule changes on Wednesday’s agenda and was told by the department that information on the agenda item could be provided after Wednesday’s meeting.
Jonathan Todd
Kihei resident Madge Schaefer is shown testifying before the liquor commission in August. Schaefer filed a lawsuit last year over public notices for those rule changes. She asked the Liquor Control Department last week for information about proposed rule changes on Wednesday’s agenda and was told by the department that information on the agenda item could be provided after Wednesday’s meeting.
Jonathan Todd
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Maui County attorneys will be advising county Liquor Control Commission Chairman Bob Tanaka to delete item "proposed rule amendments" from its Wednesday meeting agenda, following a state Office of Information Practices advisory that more detailed information is required.
OIP said the three-word agenda item, which does not list what the proposed amendments are, "appears to be insufficient." The agenda item brought back memories of an eruption of community complaints last year over similar insufficient public notice for rule changes that allowed 24-hour retail sales of alcohol and home delivery of alcohol. Against a wave of public opposition, the commission reversed itself on those and other rule changes.
Kihei resident Madge Schaefer, who filed a lawsuit last year over public notices for those rule changes, asked the Liquor Control Department last week for information about proposed rule changes on Wednesday's agenda. She said she was told by the department that information on the agenda item could be provided after Wednesday's meeting.
Schaefer then sought out OIP for guidance on the three-word agenda item under the "Director's Monthly Report" heading. In responding to Schaefer, OIP noted that its comments were not an official opinion but a response through the office's "Attorney of the Day" service, which takes questions from the public.
"The Sunshine Law requires that, when a board is preparing its agenda to give notice of its consideration of proposed rules at a meeting, the board must describe the proposed rules in sufficient detail in the agenda itself, include the rules as an attachment filed with and referenced in the agenda, or provide a link to the proposed rules in the agenda," OIP told Schaefer in an email.
OIP outlined several options for the liquor commission, which included filing an amended agenda with appropriate changes; meeting but not discussing the agenda item and canceling the meeting.
The commission could meet and discuss the item "and be prepared to respond to any formal Sunshine Law complaints, if a member of the public files a complaint," OIP said. Schaefer shared OIP's comments with the county attorneys.
County Communications Director Rod Antone said Thursday that county attorneys will advise the commission to take up the proposed rule amendments at another meeting after providing additional information on the next agenda, "so we don't run into this issue again."
As it turns out, the proposed rule changes are not as earth-shaking as last year's ones. Although the liquor department did not respond to a call from The Maui News about the proposed changes Thursday, Commissioner Jonathan Todd explained what they were.
The proposed rule changes focused on streamlining some processes for license holders for simple actions and changes that would prevent them from having to spend half a day at commission meetings. His proposal addressed things like name changes and grammatical corrections.
Todd wanted to explore the possibility of having those types of changes done administratively, rather than by a vote of the commission. He said one licensee recently had to sit through two consecutive meetings, once to make a name change and another to make a grammatical change.
When Schaefer noticed the agenda item last month, she sent an email to the Department of Liquor Control for information on the proposed rule changes.
Her response from the department was: "The proposed rule changes are under final review by the department staff and will be handed out to the commissioners on the day of the hearing. They are for review only.
"The commissioners decide which ones will go forward and which ones won't. If you'd like a copy of the proposed rule changes, it can be emailed to you later that day."
Schaefer said that "this is exactly what they did" when the commission passed, then rescinded rule changes last year.
After learning of the county attorneys' advisory to have the agenda item deleted, Schaefer said: "It's hard to appreciate this department doing what it should have done in the first place."
* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.