HILO — The County Council hadn’t even entertained a motion yet on whether to hold a public hearing on a sticky Papaikou beach access issue, but South Kona Councilwoman Brenda Ford already knew she couldn’t make it.
Ford wrote a memo to fellow council members Monday, saying she couldn’t attend the Oct. 10 public hearing because of a prior commitment. The council voted Tuesday to hold the hearing, and then set the date. The agenda listed an eminent domain procedure, but not a public hearing.
Ford may have jumped the gun, but she apparently didn’t break the Sunshine Law. Two, but no more than two council members are allowed to discuss council business as long as they don’t solicit or promise a vote, said an attorney for the state Office of Information Practices. They can talk about a motion for a public hearing and they can also discuss procedural matters, such as dates for hearings, she said.
“I tried to pull it back,” Ford said of her memo. “I saw it had the wrong date.”
Council Chairman Dominic Yagong, who sponsored the agenda item, said he’d talked with Ford, chairwoman of the council Finance Committee, immediately before the meeting Tuesday and told her the proposed date for the hearing, based on when the Papaikou gym was available. The chairman of a committee sets dates for public hearings after a motion is made and three council members agree to it.
“I let her know I was going to make a motion for the public hearing,” Yagong said. “Two council members can talk about it as long as you’re not talking about how you’re going to vote.”
Yagong said it was common knowledge he was seeking a hearing, and he used flip charts to describe the process he used at a Sept. 21 meeting.