Opinion ID: 6494576
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The alignment of the government officials with a party.

Text: The Hawai'i Administrative Rules prohibit communications between Board members and “representatives or agents” of a party. HAR § 13-1-37 provides No party or person petitioning to be a party in a contested case, nor the party’s or such person’s to a proceeding before the board nor their employees, representatives or agents shall make an unauthorized ex parte communication either oral or written concerning the contested case to the presiding officer or any member of the board who will be a participant in the decision-making process. HAR § 13-1-37(a) (2009) (emphasis added). The term “representatives” of a party is undefined in the Hawaii Administrative Rules, Title 13, chapter 1, which “governs practice and procedure before the board of land and natural resources.” HAR § 13-1-1 (2009). This court has previously defined “representative” as “agent, deputy, substitute, or delegate usually being invested with the authority of the principal.” ‘Olelo v. Office of Info. Practices, 116 Hawai'i 337, 350, 173 P.3d 484, 497 (2007) (citing Webster’s Third New International Dictionary to analyze the language of HRS § 92F-3 (1993)). Accordingly, an entity or individual is a representative of a party “when it substitutes for the [party].” Id. At a minimum, the evidence indicates that the senior senator’s and the Governor’s staff acted with UHIfA to serve as UHIfA’s substitutes with the Chairman during the hearing process. The senator’s chief of staff specifically offered to help UHIfA by “carryfing] the uh message” for UHIfA to DLNR in her January 31, 2012 email to the UHIfA associate director. The record of this cooperation between UHIfA the senior senator’s staff, and the Governor’s staff offers insight into the March 21, 2012 ex parte meeting. Athough UHIfA and Kilakila were not at the meeting, the senator’s chief of staff and the Governor’s chief of staff attended. The purpose of the meeting expressed in the March 21, 2012 email disclosed by the Governor’s office, “to discuss the telescope, hearing[] officer and funding issue,” is consistent with UHIfA’s prior concerns regarding the ATST project. Specifically, the UHIfA associate director had explained in his January 30, 2012 email to the senator’s chief of staff that “[b]y mid-March, the project will have burned through $ 4M and -will bleed $ .5M each month after that.” The project’s funding was a key concern for UHIfA and, given the senior senator’s and Governor’s previous attempts to protect UHIfA’s interests, the decision to call and participate in the March 21, 2012 ex parte meeting appears to be another example of the Governor and senior senator acting on behalf of UHIfA to engage in undisclosed ex parte communications with the contested case adjudicative officers. At the time of the March 21, 2012 email requesting the meeting, the senator’s chief of staff intended to discuss the loss of funding—as she sought to do in January 2012 when she offered to “carry the ,.. message” for UHIfA regarding the loss of funding if the permit were denied. Accordingly, the record indicates that the offices of the senior senator and the Governor acted as substitutes for UHIfA. Thus, without the possible clarification of further discovery, an appearance arises that the ex parte communications by the senator’s chief of staff and the Governor’s chief of staff with the deliberating decision makers were as representatives of UHIfA.