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The public dodges a bullet: A proposal that would have undermined a major Hawaii Supreme Court decision on public records has died a quiet death. and its companion, , failed to get necessary hearings before a key legislative deadline last week.

In 2018, the state’s highest court overturned 30 years of bad public records policy when it invalidated the so-called “deliberative process privilege” that had allowed government agencies to keep secret various draft documents and other material that showed what state and local officials were basing important decisions on.

In 2015, Civil Beat sued to get access to budget documents used to craft Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s spending plan for fiscal year 2016. Three years later, the high court ordered the city to make them available.

The Office of Information Practices grudgingly began to require agencies to turn over “pre-decisional” records when asked. But every year since, the OIP led by director Cheryl Park, has tried to get the Legislature to go against the Supreme Court. Last year the office that is supposed to be a champion of public records succeeded in getting lawmakers to cobble together a working group to come up with a proposal that would reinstate at least some of the government’s ability to keep things secret.

Some of the records in question included consultants’ reports, revenue estimates for proposed legislation, evaluations of an agency’s overall performance, forecasts of general fund tax revenues and even audit recommendations.

Not surprisingly, a number of government officials supported the working group’s recommendation while good-government organizations did not.

SB 720 passed the Senate Government Operations Committee earlier in the session, but Senate Judiciary Chair Karl Rhoads declined to hear it. Ditto for House Judiciary Chair David Tarnas.

Sunshine status update: You can thank those two in person on Wednesday at our hosted by Politics and Opinion Editor Chad Blair. Besides Tarnas and Rhoads, he’ll be joined by state Ethics Commission Executive Director Robert Harris and Kristin Izumi-Nitao, executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission.

The program begins at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the State Capitol Auditorium.

It’s free. Please come. It’s important to show your support for government reform, transparency and accountability.

In case you were wondering: A reader kindly sent us this very cool chart of Hawaii legislative salaries dating back to 1967 and showing pay that has been approved for the next couple years. The state Commission on Salaries is slated to convene again next year to consider future pay for lawmakers and others.

It’s this commission that sets salaries, by the way, not the legislators themselves.