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Gone but not forgotten: Former Hawaii Gov. David Ige may be out of office but that’s not keeping Hawaii island journalists from skewering him for his actions against the public’s right to know.

On Thursday the gave to Ige for last year’s veto of two public records bills that the Legislature had easily passed.

One measure, the club’s press release explained, would have capped fees for access to public records while the other would have required electronic audio or video recordings of public board meetings be maintained as a public record and posted.

Ige based his veto on the advice of his ill-informed department heads that “agencies may be forced to prioritize responding to records requests over the agencies’ primary functions.”

In 2020 the club dishonored Ige for imposing what Civil Beat called “one of the most extreme anti-transparency measures executed in the U.S.” He suspended Chapter 92F, the Uniform Information Practices Act, in a supplementary proclamation issued during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Again, the former governor just doesn’t get it,” longtime journalist and press club secretary Nancy Cook Lauer said in this year’s press release. “Responding to public records requests doesn’t take away from a government employee’s job. It is, in fact, part of the job.”

Ige’s gone, but similar public records bills — and — are again moving at the Legislature. And Gov. John Green seems inclined to sign them. It’s like he “gets it.”

Gone, but not forgotten Part 2: Last month, the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee stripped out provisions in a couple of bills that would have banned people convicted of public corruption from holding elected office for 10 years.

Committee Chair Rep. David Tarnas declared the bills as written unconstitutional, “according to discussions with our attorneys.” He changed the provision to prohibit the scofflaws from being allowed to receive public financing for their campaigns for 10 years before passing them along.

As noted previously in this blog, and , were drafted by the special Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct, whose members were mostly former judges and attorneys.

The Hawaii Attorney General’s Office also had no problem with the measures, and submitted written testimony in support of both of them. 

So when the bills reached the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, guess what got put back in? Yep. Chair Karl Rhoads re-amended them to restore the ban on holding office.

“I understand there are some questions,” said Rhoads, adding, “we’ll check on the constitutionality.”

Both measures were approved and will now be considered by the full Senate. But either way they are destined for conference committee where an attempt will be made to resolve the differences.

Hopefully, by that time in late April, someone will have gotten a more official opinion on the constitutional question.

HB 707 makes it a class C felony to make false, fictitious or fraudulent claims against the state or a county, while HB 711 establishes the offense of fraud as a class B felony.

A related measure, , establishes the class C felony offense of using or making false statements or entries in matters within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the state or any county. It is scheduled for a public hearing before the Senate Committee on Government Operations on Tuesday.