An alarming discovery: The Honolulu Liquor Commission might want to brush up on its federal case law before telling people they can’t have public records. 

The commission is denying requests for documents under the state’s Uniform Information Practices Act because discovery in a lawsuit against the commission has closed.

Wait, what? 

It all goes back to 2021, when liquor commission inspectors got into a skirmish with employees at the bar Scarlet Honolulu. This led to a whole series of complaints and claims of retaliation and eventually a lawsuit by Scarlet and Walter Enriquez of the Gay Island Guide.

Then, starting late last year, the commission started denying public records requests because the cutoff for discovery in that lawsuit had closed. 

The first to get this denial, apparently, was Rob Sobieralski, the boyfriend of Scarlet’s owner, Robbie Baldwin, but not a party to the lawsuit. Sobieralski has been peppering the commission with public records requests for years, to the extent that a worker there got a temporary restraining order against him, later dismissed.

Sobieralski posts this information to sites that monitor the commission and has shared it with city officials and used it in various presentations.

But in December, his request for more documents was denied because discovery in the lawsuit was cut off in July, precluding “further discovery via UIPA requests.”

On his watchdog blog, Sobieralski invited readers to make the same request, and a man from Iowa obliged. This man has zero to do with the litigation but was told he would get only records from before the July discovery cut-off in the lawsuit. 

Enriquez, one of the plaintiffs, got the same brush-off.

Here’s the thing. 

A federal court in Hawaii made it clear more than a decade ago that discovery in lawsuits and public records requests are two separate things. 

“The fact that there happens to be an ongoing lawsuit by a party against an agency who also makes a UIPA request to that same agency in no way eviscerates that agency’s duty to comply with UIPA,” the federal district court rules in Sierra Club v. City & County of Honolulu, filed in 2008. 

The state’s Office of Information Practices, which oversees UIPA, has made similar points in several opinions. Complying with the records law is completely separate from any litigation timelines or potential litigation. 

Both sides have appealed this case, which also involves questions of privacy as a reason for withholding records, to the OIP and the city says it will wait for that opinion.

Could be a long wait — OIP is seriously backlogged.

But the attorney for Scarlet and Walter Enriquez — James DiPasquale — is pursuing a different avenue. He plans to file a motion for the court to compel the liquor commission to cough up the records that Enriquez and others asked for.

“The denial of access to public records impairs not only Plaintiffs’ legal rights,” he wrote in the pending motion, “but also the broader public interest in transparency and accountability of government agencies.”

The Blog couldn’t have said it better itself.

Kalua pork: Federal lawmakers cut total appropriations for home-state projects by 5% in fiscal 2024 compared to the previous year. But some states “are more equal than others” when it comes to the distribution of earmarked funds, says a report from CQ Roll Call.

The top six states for overall earmark dollars are California ($1.05 billion), Texas ($747 million), New York ($655 million), Maine ($602 million), Mississippi ($532 million) and — aloha! — Hawaii ($489 million). Hawaii, Maine and Mississippi, CQ Roll Call explains, punch well above their weight compared to the much more heavily populated states.

Why is that? The data is also broken down to measure per capita earmarked funds. Hawaii ($341) is No. 3 after Alaska ($642) and Maine ($431.) The credit is due in no small part to the “appropriator clout” of Sens. Brian Schatz, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, respectively, each of whom sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee. And Hawaii Rep. Ed Case is on the House Appropriations Committee.

Art attack: Every year around this time the Hawaii State Legislature, in partnership with the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, sponsors an “Art at the Capitol” celebration. It’s free, and it lets the community check out historical artwork at the Capitol as part of SFCA’s “Arts in Public Places” program.

More than 30 legislators will take part in exhibitions of art in their offices on Friday from 4:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. along with the offices of the governor and the lieutenant governor and the Public Access Room.

There also will be short films from the Hawaii International Film Festival and live performances from Ballet Hawaii, Honolulu Theatre for Youth and the Hawaii Youth Symphony.

Visitors are encouraged to arrive earlier to allow time to go through security checkpoints and metal detection screening. Parking can be challenging downtown, so carpooling, TheBus and Biki Bikeshare might be good options.

From The Blog’s inbox: The number of Google searches made for “bagels near me” in Hawaii “has surged by 900% in the past year, proving that America’s love for bagels is widespread and no longer confined to New York.”

That’s from an emailed press release to The Blog this week stating that Hawaii ranks No. 1 for bagel consumption with New York state coming in at No. 6.

Key findings:

• “Hawaiians eat more bagels than any other state, with the average resident claiming they eat around 142 bagels yearly.”
• “Hawaiians are willing to spend around $6.40 on a bagel sandwich, which could add up to around $909 per year.”
• “Hawaiians prefer to keep it simple with their bagels, with 80% of respondents saying their favorite bagel is plain.”
• “Hawaiians’ favorite bagel filling is cream cheese (80% voted for this), followed by bacon, egg and cheese (20%).”

Note the incorrect use of the word “Hawaiians,” and consider the source: Betway, an online gambling company. Maybe they meant malasadas?

Be like Dan: One of the longest-serving members of the Hawaii House of Representatives wants another term. Gene Ward, a Republican who represents Portlock, Hawaii Kai and Kalama Valley, officially announced his reelection bid this week, and he cited a political hero: the late U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, the most powerful Democrat in Hawaii history.

“He is my role model for public service,” Ward, 81, said in a press release. “As long as he was capable and the people wanted him, he continued to serve the people of Hawaii, and I intend to do the same.”

Ward first served in the House in 1990-1998 before losing a challenge to U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, also a Democrat if less powerful than Inouye. He returned to office in 2006 and has been there ever since, sometimes reminding his much younger colleagues at the Capitol that this is not his first rodeo.

Click here to see who has already pulled papers to run this year. The filing deadline is June 4.