Here today, gone to D.C.: The Sunshine Blog was eyeballing the list of guests at last week’s White House fete of Japan Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and was more than a little startled to see Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen and his wife, Isabella, among the 200 people invited to dinner by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.

Not so surprising on the guest list: U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, Bill and Hillary Clinton, actor Robert De Niro, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and dozens more luminaries.

Turns out Bissen was in the nation’s capital for three days last week on official county business and apparently scored an invite because of the connection between Japan and Maui over the wildfires. Bissen spokeswoman Laksmi Abraham tells The Blog the county has received $273,994 from Japan for wildfire relief efforts.

Bissen’s D.C. trip included meetings with Tokuda, U.S. Rep. Ed Case and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz to try to keep the federal dollars flowing in.   

Today I met with Mayor Bissen to discuss the status of Lāhainā's recovery.

Maui continues to have the full backing of the federal government. We've been working as hard as we can to deliver as much aid as possible, and we won't stop until the community fully recovers. pic.twitter.com/6gYSZvehIr

— Senator Brian Schatz (@SenBrianSchatz) April 10, 2024

The mayor also met with officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Office of Homeland Security. All meetings centered around discussion for continued support from FEMA, housing and federal funding in response to the Maui wildfires, the mayor’s spokeswoman says.

Bissen’s travel expenses were covered under the county’s budget. His wife’s travel expenses were not paid for by Maui County, Abraham says. 

The public hearing that wasn’t: State Sen. Angus McKelvey took the unusual step of canceling a public hearing last week on House Concurrent Resolution 201, which called for changing the process for hiring the state auditor, ombudsman and Legislative Reference Bureau director.

Currently the Legislature fills the posts through simple majority votes during a joint session with no public input.

Presumably that’s what will be happening again soon because the six-year terms have already expired for Ombudsman Robin Matsunaga and LRB Director Charlotte Carter-Yamauchi. Auditor Les Kondo’s eight-year term expires April 30.

The resolution called for the establishment of a candidate advisory committee of legislators that would recruit candidates, evaluate their applications and hold a hearing to accept public testimony on the finalist nominees before they were recommended to the full Legislature.

That sounds like a more transparent process, but McKelvey told The Blog on Tuesday that he canceled the hearing before his Government Operations Committee because the resolution was more substantive than he originally realized.

He said the proposed new commission that the resolution would have created might have had the ability to in essence fire the current officeholders — not just fill their positions when their terms expire. It’s no secret that House Speaker Scott Saiki has been at odds with Kondo for years.

Regardless, McKelvey said the issue needs a lot more discussion than the Legislature has time for in this fast-fading session that has focused in large part on the Maui fires.

Speaking of wrapping things up: Several bills that The Blog has been keeping an eye on are likely headed for final passage Wednesday.

That’s because the House speaker is recommending that his chamber accept the Senate amendments for the measures, meaning they can avoid the end-of-session conference committee process if his fellow representatives concur. Here’s the lineup:

• HB 1597 clarifies that citizens can sue over alleged violations of the open meeting law even after receiving an adverse decision from the Office of Information Practices.
• HB 1598 requires boards to allow public inspection of meeting packets at the time the packet is distributed to board members and no later than two business days before the meeting.
• HB 1599 requires public meeting notices to inform citizens how to provide remote oral testimony so that the testifier, upon request, is visible to meeting participants.
• HB 1600 requires boards to schedule deliberation and decision-making on an investigative report at least six business days after hearing the report’s findings and recommendations.
• HB 1879 prohibits the early release of information in any digital voter information guide.
• HB 1881 increases the maximum administrative fines that the State Ethics Commission can levy to $5,000 for violations of standards of conduct.
• HB 1916 prohibits the disclosure of protected personal information, including home addresses and telephone numbers, of any public official with the intent to cause harm.
• HB 2072 requires certain political fundraising solicitations that reference disasters to include disclosures, with violators facing the possibility of felony charges.

Show them the money: The Hawaii Legislature’s 2024 session is slated to wrap on May 3, which means legislators will be free to hold organized campaign fundraisers. Two Democratic Party of Hawaii incumbents have already scheduled fundraisers, and it’s a mother-son event: Sen. Donna Kim and Rep. Micah Aiu.

The location is Palama Settlement, the date is May 13 and the suggested contribution starts at $50 and goes as high as $1,000.

Aiu is in his first term and may again face Republican Garner Shimizu, who came pretty close to winning the District 32 seat (Fort Shafter, Moanalua, Aliamanu, Foster Village, portions of Aiea and Halawa) in 2022.

Kim, who has been a state senator since 2002 and represents District 14 (Kapalama, Alewa, Kalihi, Kalihi Valley, Fort Shafter, Moanalua Gardens and Valley, Red Hill), is not up for reelection until 2026.

Legislators can still accept donations during sessions, by the way. And they do.