Standardless Discretion

Years of standardless discretion (formerly known as "an executive decision made on a case by case basis") by State of Hawaii Government bureaucrats are coming home to roost on the shores of Kauai and in a Maui Courtrooms.

From the illegal Superferry exemptions granted by the Department of Transportation, to the Department of Commerces and Consumer Affairs multi-year violation of state procurement laws by granting sole source no-bid contracts to non-profit corporations they created (`Olelo, Ho`ike, Naleo, and Akaku) it is obvious to the most casual observer that an entity that watches itself tends to be short-sighted when it comes to approving their own actions.

Lack of transparency, accountability, and oversight allow self interested parties to do their deeds in the dark, and out of public sight. Sure Hawaii has Open Records and Sunshine laws, but as anyone who has appealed to the Office of Information Practices will tell you, OIP is a toothless tiger that can opine all it want about government entities violating the law, but OIP lacks the enforcement authority to do anything about it.

Scofflaw rogue subdivisions of the state like the County of Kaua`i would rather take the OIP to court rather than disclose minutes from long past executive sessions. Ironically the state legislature created the OIP to prevent subdivisions of the state from suing each other with the unintended consequence of being sued itself.