\u201cDoesn\u2019t that affect future decisions regarding what people will put in memos or requests if they know that it\u2019s going to be public?\u201d Associate Justice Paula Nakayama asked Black. \u201cWouldn\u2019t it inhibit the free flow of ideas and decisions in the government?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThere are policy arguments on both sides,\u201d Black responded. \u201cBut I think the Legislature rejected those.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time,\u201d he added, \u201cthere are jurisdictions that do not have the deliberative process privilege as part of their public records law and they do not fall apart. They do not run into the situation where they are not able to conduct business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Associate Justice Michael Wilson pressed Black to give his own example of why the budget records being withheld by the Caldwell administration should be released.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Wilson wanted Black to explain what \u201cpublic good\u201d was served by making the information available.<\/p>\n
Black told Wilson that if the mayor includes $10 million for sewer or road repairs in his budget proposal it might appear \u201cgenerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
But if the public knew that a department head told the mayor the city needed 10 times that amount to keep up with maintenance the conclusion would be much different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public deserves to know when a department\u2019s needs are going unfunded or underfunded,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0also attacked the idea that city department heads \u2014 most\u00a0of whom are cabinet-level appointees of the mayor \u2014 should be fearful of what the public might think of their budget proposals.<\/p>\n
“Department heads are not shrinking violets,” Black said. “They’re key government officials. They are not people who should be shrinking away from the idea of public light. And these are not off-the-cuff remarks. These are things that were vetted internally for long periods of time.”<\/p>\n
Disclosure:<\/strong>\u00a0The Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest is an independent nonprofit organization created with funding from Pierre Omidyar, who is also CEO and publisher of Civil Beat.org. Civil Beat Editor Patti Epler sits on its board of directors.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A public records case that fundamentally challenges Hawaii government’s tendency to work in the shadows is in the hand’s of the state’s highest court. The Hawaii Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a lawsuit brought by 天美视频 against the City and County of Honolulu after city officials denied access to budget documents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11778,"featured_media":1236875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2782,2783],"tags":[],"post_format":[],"project":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-1236923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawaii-beat","category-honolulu-beat"],"slp_mobile_featured_image":{"id":1236875,"href":"https:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236875","image_path":"https:\/\/d1l18ops95qbzp.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/2017\/06\/Associate-Associate-Justice-Paula-Nakayama2.jpg","caption":"The Hawaii Supreme Court including justices Paula Nakayama, left, and Mark Recktenwald is considering whether to change a government practice of keeping information used in decision-making confidential."},"acf":[],"slp_coauthors":[{"display_name":"Nick Grube","user_nicename":"ngrube","author_link":"https:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/author\/ngrube\/"}],"slp_acf":{"post_twitter_card_type":"summary_large_image","post_twitter_card_description":"","cb_article_type":"","cb_related_logo_image":false,"cb_related_logo_link":"","cb_related_sponsor_logo_image":false,"cb_related_sponsor_url":"","cb_related_sponsor_text":"","cb_article_footnotes":"","dynamic_html":"","shins":false,"cb_inc_byline":true,"cb_custom_thumb_caption":true,"cb_author_contributor_type":"internal","cb_excerpt_type":"","incsides":false,"photo_caption":""},"slp_primary_category":{"id":2782,"name":"Hawai\u02bbi"},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Hawaii Supreme Court To Rule On Secret Government Deliberations","url":"http:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/2017\/06\/hawaii-supreme-court-to-rule-on-secret-government-deliberations\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/2017\/06\/hawaii-supreme-court-to-rule-on-secret-government-deliberations\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d1l18ops95qbzp.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/2017\/06\/Associate-Associate-Justice-Paula-Nakayama2-150x150.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/d1l18ops95qbzp.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/2017\/06\/Associate-Associate-Justice-Paula-Nakayama2.jpg"},"articleSection":"Hawai\u02bbi","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nick Grube"}],"creator":["Nick Grube"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"天美视频","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2017-06-02T10:01:10Z","datePublished":"2017-06-02T10:01:10Z","dateModified":"2017-06-20T06:00:33Z"},"rendered":"