From Civil Beat:
The court’s action came in a Maui case which had challenged alleged sunshine violations by the Maui County Council and its Land Use Committee when approving a proposed 670-acre development above the Wailea Resort in 2008.
In an 80-page decision dated Aug. 8, the Supreme Court allowed the approval to stand, although it found the Sunshine Law had been violated when council members circulated 14 written memos proposing amendments between public meetings. These included explanations and justifications, along with requests for “favorable consideration.” In other words, members solicited votes for the different proposals in violation of the open meeting law.
The court used the occasion to put public agencies on notice they must go beyond technical compliance with the letter of the law and comply with it’s far broader spirit and intent.
Maui attorney Lance Collins, who represented the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit resulted from “a sense of outrage about how the council was really trying to ram this thing through and just disregarded the sunshine law in the process.”
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