The Sierra Club has questioned whether a state House bill that would exempt new buildings at Neighbor Island airports from certain permitting requirements and approval by county agencies is valid.
The club's Hawai'i chapter believes the House may have violated its rules by failing to show good cause to waive a 48-hour hearing notice requirement and allow the House Water, Land, Ocean Resources and Hawaiian Affairs Committee to hold decision-making on the bill this month.
State House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo Valley, Wilhelmina Rise), responded in a letter to the club on Tuesday that the courts have given the Legislature great leeway to conduct its affairs as long as no constitutional right has been violated.
Open-government activists have criticized the practice of waiving the 48-hour notice requirement in the past, arguing it deprives citizens from knowing about hearings in a timely manner.
"This is a perennial issue for us," said Jeff Mikulina, director of the Sierra Club's Hawai'i chapter.
The waivers are often a function of time-management in compressed, 60-day legislative sessions, but Mikulina — and some lawmakers — think they are granted too casually.
Say typically approves the waivers on the House floor without asking for good cause, because the presumption is that there is good cause. Any lawmaker, however, can ask for an explanation.
The airport bill in question was approved by the House on Wednesday and has been sent to the Senate. Six lawmakers voted against the bill.