Kauai heart of darkness

The Kauai County Council in its unrelenting effort to keep the people they represent totally in the dark may have found the magic bullet to end the toothless misery of the State Office of Information Practice (OIP), and put another bullet through the heart of a citizen's right to know ("County prevails in executive session suit", The Garden Island, Feburary 11, 2008, A1).

This new magic bullet is called the "Intertwine" and it sounds as dangerous as it is. The Intertwine bullet spins erratically structuring the meeting discussion in such a manner that Judge Watanabe summed up the situation like this "... minutes were so intertwined with other portions that redaction would be impractical."

"Let's hold all our executive meetings using the Intertwine and then we can keep all our deeds done in the dark secret from those we represent," gleefully exclaimed a Kaua`i government official under condition of anonymity.

Surely the deployment of the Intertwine will become a great urban legend retold and intertwined in executive sessions through the State. It is a tale of how the Kauai County Council discovered a way to keep what happens in executive session secret from those they represent -- forever.

Pardon my analysis, but isn't the common use meaning of a rambling discussion termed a "BS session"?

Finally unless I have one of those "intentionally altered government documents" that Kaua`i County Council members seem to see everywhere now before me, there has been an OIP opinion released since former OIP director Les Kondo was appointed to the Public Utilities Commission in July (contrary the Garden Island Article. The advisory opinion is S Memo-G 08-6, dated January 28, 2008. The opinion was requested by the Kaua`i County Attorney. The OIP opined that contrary to the assertion of the Kaua`i County Attorney, Section 307.E of the Kauai County Charter (which only allows the Council to close a meeting to discuss "claims" with it's attorney) does not violate State Sunshine Law, and in fact is a partial wavier of the attorney-client privilege. True to form the Kaua`i County Council to date has refused to release the County Attorney's opinion on this matter and continues to meet in executive session in violation of the County Charter.