Civil Beat Sues Hawaii Attorney General Over Secret Auditor Report
The state is refusing to release its findings from its investigation of alleged wrongdoing inside Hawaii government’s top watchdog agency.
天美视频 filed a lawsuit Thursday against the in an attempt to free up records related to the agency鈥檚 investigation of alleged wrongdoing inside the .
The attorney general鈥檚 office has refused to publicly release documents related to its inquiry, although it has shared its final investigative reports with certain state legislators, including Senate President Ron Kouchi.
Kouchi has declined to talk about the investigation or the AG’s findings.
Civil Beat filed a public records request for the attorney general鈥檚 reports in April. Officials denied the request in May, saying that releasing the information would infringe on unnamed individuals鈥 privacy rights and 鈥渇rustrate a legitimate government function.鈥
But Civil Beat鈥檚 attorney, Brian Black, said citizens should have a right to access the attorney general鈥檚 report 鈥斅爋r at least significant portions of it 鈥 so that they can understand what problems might be occurring within the auditor鈥檚 office.
Black is the executive director of the , a Honolulu nonprofit dedicated to the pursuit of transparency and open government through litigation and lobbying.
鈥淲e鈥檙e just trying to get some measure of accountability,鈥 Black said. 鈥淭hese records are important because the attorney general鈥檚 office did a factual investigation into something going on at one of the most important offices in the state that is the watchdog for all of the other departments in the state.
鈥淚f there鈥檚 a problem in that office the public should know about it.鈥
Joshua Wisch, a spokesman for the Department of the聽Attorney General, said Thursday that his agency hadn’t yet received a copy of the complaint and wouldn’t comment.
Few details have come out about the AG鈥檚 investigation.
What鈥檚 known is that the investigation took place while Jan Yamane was the acting state auditor. Yamane was assigned to that position in December 2012 after the retirement of longtime auditor Marion Higa.
In April, the Legislature voted to replace Yamane with former Hawaii State Ethics Commission Executive Director Les Kondo. It was a curious move at the time given Kondo鈥檚 often fractious relationship with legislators, and in particular House Speaker Joe Souki.
Yamane is now the executive director of the Honolulu Ethics Commission. She did not return a request for comment Thursday.
Read the complaint here:
