`Olelo Committed to Protecting Client Privacy and Preserving Its Independence as a Private, Non-Profit Organization

In 2002, the Office of Information Practices (OIP) issued an advisory opinion suggesting that Olelo was a state agency for the purposes of the State Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA) because of what OIP wrongly perceived to be a close contractual relationship between Olelo and the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA).

UIPA is designed to make government records accessible to the public. However, Olelo is a private non-profit corporation, not a state “agency” subject to UIPA. Further, in our opinion, OIP has no jurisdiction over a privately run, non-profit organization such as Olelo.

Despite Olelo's strong disagreement with the OIP's opinion, we have voluntarily complied with the spirit of UIPA, giving individuals access to many records, including vendor contracts, invoices, inventory lists, policies, memos and correspondence, personnel-related information, production proposals, and planning documents.

As a non-profit access organization, Olelo has long been committed to making its relevant business practices transparent and accountable. Olelo's bylaws and business practices are considered far more open and inclusive than the majority of non-profit organizations. Oelo seeks to balance the need to fulfill reasonable requests and its ability to conduct business, devoting its limited resources to its core mission – supporting community access programming and services.

Recently, Olelo received requests (by individuals citing UIPA) for the names, home addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of its master client list in both written and electronic format. This request caused Olelo to carefully consider the consequences, liabilities and risks of publicly disclosing its master list. Specifically, Olelo does not want to violate the privacy interests that its clients have in their contact information. Such a list could be used to facilitate spamming, unwanted mail, or phone solicitations.

We are equally concerned about the time and money spent on voluminous and bureaucratic requests that, ultimately, take away from our ability to expand community access and client services.

After careful consideration, Olelo's Board of Directors has decided to challenge OIP's opinion and is seeking a legal review and confirmation of Olelo's status as a private, independent non-profit organization. We will continue to allow access to many of our corporate records, such as reports to the DCCA, our annual audited financial statements, our contracts with vendors, our contracts with DCCA, our final operating procedures and policies, our minutes of Board meetings, and other similar corporation documents.

In addition to preserving the confidentiality and privacy of our clients, our goal is to confirm our independence in order to reduce the risk of government interference in our day-to-day operations and to increase available resources to focus on our mission of building community through public, education and government access services.

Olelo will not share its email list with others and will not use the list for commercial purposes.

For more information:

834-0007