The Office of Information Practices has finally formally acknowledged court rulings on hiring, firing and evaluating top public officials.

Earlier this month, the state Office of Information Practices quietly posted a brief update to an opinion it had issued nearly two years ago that many state boards and commissions had relied on to justify dealing with personnel matters in secret.

OIP now says its opinion allowing Sunshine boards to hire, fire and review some of Hawai’i’s most high-profile public officials in executive session was “palpably erroneous.”

That means they were really wrong. And it comes after a Circuit Court judge sided with the Public First Law Center in a lawsuit involving both the Agribusiness Development Corp. and the Defender Council whose boards had hired executive

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