Transparency Exemption Restored As Green Revises Housing Proclamation Again
The second revision prompted opponents of his initial emergency order to drop their legal challenge.
State and county boards involved with affordable housing projects covered by Gov. Josh Green’s emergency proclamation must comply again with the Sunshine Law, the Hawaii Office of Information Practices said Tuesday.
Green’s has eliminated the suspension of certain laws that provide public transparency in government decisions.
It鈥檚 the second rewrite of his order that aims to address the state鈥檚 affordable housing crisis. The governor had previously revised the document, adopted in July, to roll back features that would have suspended state laws requiring public testimony, environmental review and historic preservation laws.
Opponents of Green鈥檚 bid to accelerate home construction by suspending some of those key statutes withdrew their legal complaint against the plan Tuesday.
鈥淲e appreciate that the governor heard many of our core concerns and appears to have tried to address them in the revised proclamations,鈥 Earthjustice attorney David Henkin, who represents some of the plaintiffs that had challenged the governor鈥檚 plan, said in a release.
鈥淚t remains deeply troubling, however, that the governor continues to claim the authority to suspend laws whenever he feels like it to address longstanding public policy issues, however important,” he said.
Henkin said the groups will take a 鈥渨ait and see鈥 approach, continuing to monitor the plan as it鈥檚 put into action.
鈥淚f the governor tries to advance housing projects that are not in the public interest, we will be back in court,” he said in a statement.
The complaint had been brought by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, the Sierra Club, Hawaii Advocates for Truly Affordable Housing and E Ola Kakou Hawaii, a Native Hawaiian organization. Joining the plaintiff groups is K奴鈥檌keokalani Kamakea-驶艑helo, a member of the .
