 Aloha, I'm Kili Akina, president of the Grassroot Institute. This was the year when we learned how, quote, annoying the public can be to government agencies. What with their constant demands for transparency, sunshine, and access to government records. In fact, some state agencies were so annoyed that they sought help from the legislature, which responded with a bill to limit the rights of, quote, vexatious records requesters. That's HB 1518, and it's still alive. But fortunately, the latest version requires a decision from a court before stripping government watchdogs of their rights. Now the funny thing is that if anyone is entitled to feel vexed by the state's transparency laws and process, it's the public. According to civil beats, state and city officials have regularly tried to hide records or withhold them by charging ridiculously high fees to the person requesting them. The Grassroot Institute frequently requests public documents, and our researchers could share a few stories with you about the tactics agencies use to delay or avoid a response. When we worked with Judicial Watch to gain a copy of the Native Hawaiian Role, a public voter list, we even had to go to court to get these records released. Ironically, there's a shockingly simple solution that would make everyone happy. Just be more transparent. It's that simple. Requesters would get the documents they want, and state workers could be spared the stress of coming up with reasons to avoid handing them over. In fact, if agencies were more open in their operations, some of those requests wouldn't even be necessary. For example, there's a bill in legislature now, HB165, now headed to a conference committee, that would modernize the existing sunshine law by doing something very simple, requiring the posting of public agency meeting notices and minutes and making board packets available online for public inspection. It's an important step forward for transparency in Hawaii and a common-sense way to reduce work associated with records requests. After all, there's no need to make a request when something's already online and everybody can see it. Of course, several state agencies oppose HB165 and have testified about why they would find it difficult to comply with the bill. It's almost as if they prefer being vexed. Still, we hope that the legislature will embrace greater openness in government and take advantage of the internet to make more records publicly available. They could even think of it as a public health service, because all that stress and vexation can't be good for our state workers. Ehonakako, let's work together. I'm Kelea Akina with the Grass Root Institute, aloha.