When Hawaii governments meet
Meeting schedules as standing rules, not as a calendar of dates. A rule holds until the body changes it; a date list goes stale in a week.
Cadence confirmed for 15 of the 17 bodies we track, up from 10 after a reconciliation pass on 2026-08-16 that read each body's charter, statute or rules of procedure instead of its landing page. Where a body has not published a rule, this page says so rather than reverse engineering one from a list of past meeting dates. A calendar shows what happened. It does not show what is required.
Several of the new rows carry a rule and a practice that disagree, and the disagreement is printed rather than resolved. That is the more useful answer: it tells you what the body owes you and what it actually does, which are different questions.
County councils
| Body | Meets | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Honolulu City Council | "once each month on Wednesdays at 10 a.m." for the full Council. Committee meetings run three consecutive days, Tuesday through Thursday, at varying times. | Council Chamber, 3rd floor, Honolulu Hale, 530 South King Street |
| Hawaii County Council | Rule No. 2(1): "The Council shall meet regularly at least twice in every month ... Whenever possible, the meetings will be scheduled on the first and third Wednesday of each month. The Council shall hold an equal number of meetings in East and West Hawai'i." Committees meet the day before a regular Council meeting. | Two chambers at once, plus four courtesy sites. Full list below. |
| Maui County Council | "generally meets on the first and third Friday of each month, at 9:00 a.m. ... however, the schedule is subject to change in accordance with the Council Rules." | Council Chamber, 8th floor, Kalana O Maui Building, 200 S. High Street, Wailuku |
| Kauai County Council | Rule No. 1(b): regular meetings at least twice a month on a Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., "or other time designated by the Council," with a majority able to change the location, time or day. Standing committees meet on the Wednesday of the following week, in a fixed order. | Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201, Lihue, plus Meeting Room 106 on the first floor of the same building |
Kauai's rule was found on 2026-08-16 and this page previously recorded it as not established. It is in the Rules of the Council of the County of Kauai, adopted as Resolution No. 2025-02. Hawaii County's equal-east-and-west requirement, which is in both its charter and its rules, was also missing. See Kauai County Council and Hawaii County Council.
A Kapolei Hale claim was removed from the Honolulu row on 2026-08-16 and needs re-verification before it goes back. This page previously said "Some regular meetings are held at Kapolei Hale." We could not support it: the Council's own calendar and meetings pages name only Honolulu Hale, "generally held in the Council Chamber on the 3rd floor," and the only Kapolei meeting we located was on a 2022 agenda in the Granicus archive. Treat whether any regular Council meeting is still held at Kapolei Hale as unresolved, not as settled either way.
Sources: Honolulu City Council calendar, Hawaii County Council, Maui County Council, Kauai County Council
Hawaii County meets in six places at once
This is the most distinctive meeting arrangement in the state and the one most likely to catch out someone used to a mainland council.
Council chambers (either is full in-person participation):
- Council Chambers, Suite 1401, County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, HI 96720
- Council Chambers, Building A, West Hawaii Civic Center, 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
Courtesy videoconference sites:
- Pahoa District 4 Council Office, 15-2879 Pahoa Village Road, Pahoa, HI 96778
- Waimea District 9 Council Office, 65-1279 Kawaihae Road, Suite 109, Kamuela, HI 96743
- Old Kohala Courthouse, 54-3900 Akoni Pule Highway, Kapaau, HI 96755
- Ocean View Community Association, 92-8924 Leilani Circle, Ocean View, HI 96704
The county states plainly that "if a Courtesy Site is unavailable for any reason, the scheduled meeting will continue." The courtesy sites are a convenience, not a guarantee.
The state legislature
The Legislature does not run on a monthly meeting rule. It runs on a session and on hearing notices.
| Regular session | Convenes in January and runs into early May. The 2026 session convened Wednesday, January 21, 2026. |
| Committee hearings | Scheduled at the discretion of each committee chair, during session. The committee must file a public hearing notice at least 48 hours before the hearing starts. |
| Senate first referral committees | Post notice of meetings and decision-making sessions at least 72 hours before the meeting. |
| Where | Hawaii State Capitol, Honolulu. The hearing room is named on each hearing notice. |
| Upcoming hearings | capitol.hawaii.gov upcoming hearings |
| Floor sessions | Listed on the Order of the Day. Floor session cadence is not established here. |
The 48-hour and 72-hour notice rules, and the fact that they can be waived on the floor by the Senate President or House Speaker at a chair's request, come from the Legislative Reference Bureau's Public Access Room.
If you are tracking a bill, the hearing notice is the event, not the session calendar. A bill that is never scheduled for a hearing dies without a vote, and there is no meeting on any calendar to attend when that happens.
Statewide boards and commissions
| Body | Meets | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Board of Land and Natural Resources | The cadence is in an administrative rule, not just a schedule. HAR 13-1-5(b) sets regular meetings "on the second and fourth Fridays of each and every month," and HRS 171-5 requires the board to meet "not less than once a month." The department's own schedule adds that a Friday holiday moves the meeting to Thursday, and that November and December carry one meeting each. | 1151 Punchbowl Street, Room 132, Kalanimoku Building, Honolulu, unless the agenda names another location |
| Hawaiian Homes Commission | "The Commission meets once a month" | Oahu meetings are in Hale Ponoi, the annex building at the DHHL main office, 91-5420 Kapolei Parkway, Kapolei. The commission also meets on other islands. |
| Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Board of Trustees | "meets regularly, usually twice a month on Thursdays". Five trustees are required for a quorum. The board also meets at least once annually on each island, usually as an evening community meeting followed by a morning board meeting. | 560 N. Nimitz Highway, Suite 200, Honolulu, HI 96817, and on the neighbor islands on rotation |
| University of Hawaii Board of Regents | Monthly, typically the third Thursday. The 2026 to 2027 schedule shows ten regular board meetings plus one special session, rotating among UH system campuses. Ten is also the statutory floor in HRS 304A-104(c), so the published schedule meets the law with no margin. | Rotates among campuses. Board office: 2444 Dole Street, Bachman Hall Room 209, Honolulu |
| Board of Education | The rule is a delegation. Bylaws Section 6.1: "The Board shall meet regularly, as determined by the Board Chairperson," who may also change or cancel any general business meeting subject to HRS 92-7. The one countable obligation is Section 6.4: no fewer than six community meetings a year, including one in each county, and those may not be held to formulate policy. | Queen Liliuokalani Building, 1390 Miller Street, Room 404, Honolulu, "unless otherwise noted" |
| Land Use Commission | Not established as a fixed cadence. But the commission does have a location rule, and it is unusually strong: HRS 205-4(b) and HAR 15-15-51(a) require a boundary amendment hearing to be held on the island where the land is. | Rotates by law with the land in question. Observed 2026 meetings include Honolulu, Wailuku and Kailua-Kona. |
| Public Utilities Commission | Not established. The PUC works through dockets rather than a standing public meeting, and its calendar is docket-driven. Rate cases carry their own notice regime: HRS 269-16(b) makes a public hearing mandatory before any rate increase, and HRS 269-12(c) requires notice once in each of three weeks, the first not less than 21 days ahead. | Not established |
Sources: BLNR meetings 2026, Hawaiian Homes Commission, OHA Board of Trustees, UH Board of Regents, Board of Education agendas, LUC meetings, PUC eServices calendar
Four statewide bodies come to you, and this page used to name only two. The Board of Regents rotates among University of Hawaii campuses; the Hawaiian Homes Commission meets across islands; the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board meets at least once a year on each island, including Lanai; and the Land Use Commission is required by statute to hold a boundary amendment hearing on the island where the land sits. The Land Use Commission's obligation is the strongest of the four, because it is a condition on the decision rather than a schedule preference.
County planning commissions
| Body | Meets | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Honolulu Planning Commission | Rule 2-18(a): "Regular meetings shall be scheduled approximately every two weeks." The published 2026 schedule adds the weekday and hour: "most Wednesdays, beginning at 1:30 p.m." Twenty-four dates in 2026, with only one meeting in November and one in December. | Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building, 650 South King Street, 6th Floor Conference Room. The 7th floor is the mailing address, not the meeting room. |
| Maui Planning Commission | Second and fourth Tuesdays, 9:00 a.m., per the county's own page. The rule says something else: Rule 12-201-14(e) requires meetings "at least once a month on the second or fourth Tuesdays." A floor of one; a practice of two. | Planning department conference room, first floor, Kalana Pakui Building, 250 South High Street, Wailuku, named in the rule itself |
| Molokai Planning Commission | Rule 12-301-9(c): "at least once a month on the second Wednesday of each month," alterable by vote of the commission. The practice in 2026 has been second and fourth Wednesdays at 11:00 a.m., and four of thirteen scheduled meetings were canceled. | Mitchell Pauole Center, named in the rule, "or elsewhere on Molokai" by vote |
| Lanai Planning Commission | Third Wednesday of each month, 5:00 p.m., per the county's own page, and the 2026 practice matched it in every posted month. The rule names a place rather than a day: Rule 12-401-14(e) requires meetings "at least once a month on the island of Lanai." Neither the weekday nor the hour is in any rule. | In conflict. The rule says Lanai. The notices give the physical location as Suite 619, One Main Plaza, Wailuku, on Maui, with a room in Lanai City as a courtesy testimony site "subject to change without notice." |
Sources: Honolulu Planning Commission, Maui County planning commissions. Maui County's Planning Department is at 2200 Main Street, One Main Plaza, Suite 315, Wailuku, HI 96793, (808) 270-7735.
All four planning commission rows were "Not established" until 2026-08-16. All four now carry a rule, and in three of the four cases the rule and the published practice do not say the same thing. That is the most useful part: an evening meeting on Lanai, a 5:00 p.m. start, is a very different civic obligation from a 9:00 a.m. weekday meeting in Wailuku, and the commission whose rule fixes a place rather than a weekday is the one governing the island whose residents would otherwise have to fly.
The Lanai row is the one worth reading twice. Its rule obliges the commission to meet on the island of Lanai, and its notices put the meeting in Wailuku, on Maui, with a courtesy site on Lanai that may change without notice. We recorded that rather than deciding which one is right. See Lanai Planning Commission.
The pattern across the state
- Fridays are the state's meeting day. Maui County Council meets on the first and third Friday. The Board of Land and Natural Resources meets on the second and fourth Friday. Between them they cover most Fridays of the month, and both handle land.
- Twice a month is the norm for councils, except Honolulu, whose full Council meets monthly and does most of its work in three straight days of committee meetings.
- Thursdays belong to the boards. OHA usually meets twice a month on Thursdays and the Board of Regents typically on the third Thursday.
- Four bodies leave Oahu by rule: the Board of Regents among UH campuses, the Hawaiian Homes Commission across islands, the OHA Board of Trustees on an annual per-island rotation, and the Land Use Commission wherever the land in a boundary petition happens to be. Everything else on this page that has a fixed address has that address in Honolulu or Kapolei.
- Two councils are required to spread their meetings geographically: Hawaii County, by an equal split between east and west Hawaii, and Maui County, which legislates for three inhabited islands from one chamber.
Why some rows are blank
Two rows that were blank on this page are no longer blank, because the instruments turned up. The Kauai County Council's 8:30 a.m., twice-monthly Wednesday cadence is in Rule No. 1(b) of its own Rules of the Council. The Board of Education's cadence rule exists and is a delegation to its chairperson. Neither was reverse engineered from a calendar; both are quoted from the adopted instrument.
What remains blank is different in kind. The Land Use Commission has no fixed cadence rule that we found, and the three Maui County planning commissions are covered on their own pages rather than here. An archive is a record of what happened, not a rule, so a long run of past meeting dates does not fill a cadence field.
A note on Hawaiian spelling
The place names on this page are written in plain ASCII, without the okina and kahako that Hawaiian orthography requires. That is a deliberate rendering decision and it is explained, along with why we consider it a defect rather than a neutral choice, on the about page. The government pages linked above carry the correct spellings.
Before you go
Check the current agenda. Holiday weeks, budget sessions, special meetings and, in the Legislature's case, the internal timetable all move things, and the exceptions are not documented on this page for any body.
Verified 2026-08-15. Schedules were checked against each body's own site on that date. "Not established" means we have not confirmed it, not that no rule exists. The body's own page is authoritative.