Sunny days are here again: Welcome to Sunshine Sunday, a natural evolution of our signature “Let The Sunshine In” accountability project.

We launched the Sunshine Project two years ago when the Legislature finally got serious about reforming government and political processes after a couple of lawmakers and a well-known lobbyist were convicted of bribery. The aim was to shine a very bright spotlight on state and local government agencies and officials with an eye toward how well they are working to benefit the public and how easy — or not — it is for the public to play a role in the decisions and actions that are important to their lives.

Since then, our Sunshine efforts — housed in Civil Beat’s Ideas section — have grown to include the work of our own writers, citizens, elected officials, civic leaders and policy experts who contribute thoughtful commentary about the issues affecting Hawaiʻi. Our reporting has had significant impact in the past two years, leading to deeper discussions on issues and richer understanding of the people and politics that make Hawaiʻi tick.

Now, we’re strengthening the initiative with dedicated space on Civil Beat’s site and a commitment to make every Sunday a Sunshine day. So make it a habit to kick back with your laptop or tablet or smart phone and spend some time with us. We’ve got your favorite columnists, cartoonists, and even a new mini crossword for a little extra brain tease.

We’ll help you pay attention to this particular place on the planet, and we hope it pushes you to do whatever you can to make it a better place.

Drop us a note at sunshine@civilbeat.org and let us know what you think. 

And now, back to The Blog …

Auwē, Awa: The Blog isn’t the only one still trying to make sense of GOP Sen. Brenton Awa’s rant on the Senate floor on Opening Day of the Legislature. It’s been four days, and it’s still the buzz at the State Capitol and on social media. While he was trying to make important points about Hawaiʻi’s cost of living and the status of Native Hawaiians in particular, Awa’s incendiary remarks about majority Democrats likely won him more enemies than friends.

Awa, a former television reporter and anchor, is the minority party’s new Senate leader, thanks to the election in the fall of a third Republican, Samantha DeCorte. Awa and the other GOP senator, Kurt Fevella, were never able to agree on who would lead the caucus the past two sessions but DeCorte broke the stalemate.

On Wednesday, in front of a packed Senate gallery and lots of VIPs (check it out on YouTube at the 1-hour mark), Awa blamed past and current Democratic leaders for bad decisions that he said had made Hawaiʻi an unbearably expensive place to live.

But the biggest shocker for most people was when he attacked former House Speaker Scott Saiki by saying Saiki used to own the House “but the mahus changed his pronouns to ‘has been.'”

Māhū is Hawaiian for a third gender with both male and female spirits but can also refer to gay people of either sex and people who are intersex. Awa was obviously referring to Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto, who defeated Saiki last year and who in 2006 was the highest-ranking openly transgender person elected in the country when she was elected to the Hawaiʻi Board of Education.

As Hawaii News Now reported, Iwamoto took Awa’s crack in stride. Some trans-rights activists were offended, others not so much.

And there was plenty more offense to come from Awa. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi “figuratively” owns the local media (he was the longtime general manager of Hawaii News Now) and he’s too old to have new ideas (he’s 78 years old). Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz controls the Senate (he chairs the Ways and Means Committee and wields considerable political power). Gov. Josh Green was wrong to suggest Hawaiʻi hotels house fire victims from Los Angeles (one of his more recent ideas).

“The governor and all of those who came before, they’re not bad people,” said Awa, who was cheered by some in the gallery as others squirmed quietly. “It’s just their decisions is why Hawaiʻi is where it is.”

Awa promised more protest to come, amplified via local social media wizard Mr. Mean to 400,000 people a day.

Reaction, The Blog observed, was overwhelmingly unkind.

“Not a good way to make friends in this building,” said one legislative employee.

“He raised good arguments but it probably backfired,” said a Capitol veteran.

“He looked like John Wick,” wagged one social media user (that’s a reference to the popular Keanu Reeves films.)

Awa, who’s on his second term in the Senate, has been occasionally obstreperous. But it seems like now he’s spoiling for a fight.

“I don’t want to be the ones to make enemies, but for as long as we’ve been alive, there’s been virtually no resistance in this building, none for the past 10 years,” said Awa. “So we will be the ones. We will be the ones to resist all decisions that force locals to leave.”

Let the fireworks begin. Figuratively, that is.

Good and bad news on House rules: If you agree with The Blog that changing the rules of the Legislature is a good way to make state government more transparent, there was a lot to like about the House of Representatives on Friday.

Members spent almost an hour talking about proposed rules for the 2025-2026 legislative biennium, shining a lot more sunlight than usual on the processes by which the House operates.

Happily, a couple of significant changes were made, such as requiring that the public receive all written testimony on a bill at least two hours before it is heard. And in at least some cases, the actual sponsors of bills submitted “by request” will now be identified instead of remaining anonymous.

But sadly, most of the rule changes sought by the new Good Government Caucus and reform advocates (including more than 20 activist organizations and 1,600 individuals) did not make the cut. Those improvements, which have proved to be politically unpalatable year after year, include limiting the power of conference chairs, preventing the money committees from controlling non-fiscal matters and requiring that legislators be informed from the start about the potential costs of bills through “fiscal notes.”

So, not exactly a tsunami of reforms, considering there were more than 70 suggested rule changes from representatives. But the very fact that suggestions were solicited from all 51 members drew high praise for new House Speaker Nadine Nakamura during a Friday floor session.

“For the first 10 years I didn’t even know that there was a rules process,” said Minority Leader Lauren Matsumoto, a 12-year veteran of the House. “It was very quickly done on opening day.”

“This year I’m very grateful that we opened it up to every single member to be able to add their input.”

Matsumoto and several other laudatory representatives expressed hope that Friday was just the beginning of a more open process that would lead to additional rule changes. “These rules are a floor, not a ceiling,” said Rep. Andrew Garrett.

Rookie Rep. Tina Grandinetti summed up the general tenor of the floor session.

“There’s a palpable energy of change and openness,” she said. “I feel it and I’m really looking forward to this session.”

She called the rule changes “important first steps toward rebuilding public trust.”

“That being said, I don’t think they’re enough to fully address concerns from our community around transparency and accountability.”

Perhaps Speaker Nakamura’s refreshing new approach will inspire House members to propose more rule changes mid-session — all it takes is 24 hours’ notice and majority support on the floor.

Commission commiserating: The Blog had been eagerly awaiting the Honolulu Police Commission’s meeting last week, the first since it received a spanking from the Office of Information Practices for years-long violations of the Sunshine Law because commissioners (some of whom really should have known better) were regularly talking about things that in both open meetings and closed door executive sessions should have been put on the public agenda.

While last week’s agenda was much improved from a transparency perspective, it was clear the commissioners were thrown for a loop by the need to follow the Sunshine Law (which has only been on the books since 1975). And they spent far more time plotting how to get out from under it than how to do it right.

In a discussion that was properly on the agenda, outgoing commission chair Doug Chin (his term ended Dec. 31 but he’s staying on til Mayor Rick Blangiardi finds a replacement) reported that he and Commissioner Carrie Okinaga had met with the OIP attorneys to learn what they had been doing wrong. (Insert eye roll here: he is a former attorney general and city managing director, she is a former Corporation Counsel and current University of Hawaiʻi general counsel).

“My takeaway was we’re always supposed to be very mindful of the fact that the public should be aware of what we’re going to be talking about,” Chin said.

Other commissioners suggested a solution might be to ask the Legislature to change the law regarding the requirements for a transparent agenda. Commissioner Laurie Foster said if other boards and commissions are having trouble with the Sunshine Law then “we all rise up” and storm the State Capitol together.

Okinaga, who has been down that road before, pointed out the likely futility of that effort. It’s very hard to convince the Legislature to change the Sunshine Law. The Blog would note that’s because lawmakers realize it’s the public that would be rising up if the open meetings requirement were weakened.

Perhaps being on the police commission is indeed a tougher job than it would appear. That may be why Commissioner Libby Char refused to take on the vice chair position when fellow members tried to nominate her for that post at the end of the meeting. With Chin on his way out, Ken Silva, a former fire chief who had been vice chair, was voted in as the new chair. Char, the former director of the state health department, was next in line to be vice chair but when she realized it meant she might have to be chair one day, she firmly declined.

Much angst followed in the discussion of who could be vice chair and thus the next chair. No one, it seemed, wanted to do it or could do it except for Foster who volunteered and ultimately was voted in.

Try, try again: Only a half-dozen state legislators ended up holding fundraisers before the start of session this year. All the others either apparently decided it was unseemly to raise campaign cash before hearing bills of special interests or they just got tired of seeing their names in The Blog.

One former legislator, though, is clearly considering a comeback. Cedric Gates, a state representative on the West Side of Oʻahu, is already seeking donations for 2028. Gates, a Democrat, lost a Senate race in November to Republican Samantha DeCorte.

Fresh face: There’s a new but familiar face at Honolulu Hale. Mayor Rick Blangiardi has appointed Gavin Thornton deputy director of the City and County of Honolulu’s Office of Economic Revitalization.

Thornton previously served as executive director of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice and earlier worked for the Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi.

He is a University of Virginia School of Law graduate who, according to a press release, has dedicated his career “to public service and economic justice.”

A face for radio: Could outgoing University of Hawaiʻi President David Lassner have a new career in radio? Here he is introducing Friday’s NPR Politics Podcast with its time and date feature that leads the show.

The Blog could see him broadcasting from the beach, which is where he tells NPR listeners he’s heading now that his long career at UH concludes.