WAILUKU – A Maui judge on Thursday ordered the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to promulgate and adopt rules for selecting contractors to manage cable television public access channels.

Akaku is challenging the state’s request for a proposal process that requires potential contractors to submit proposals to operate, maintain and manage the public, educational and governmental access channels. The state previously issued contracts directly to operators in each county, but the state attorney general in 2005 advised the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs that the contracts should be awarded through a procurement process.

“Akaku is very happy,” attorney Lance Collins said after August issued his ruling on Thursday.

Collins said one basis of Akaku’s suit is that the state issued its request for proposals on July 30 without conducting proper rule making for the RFP process. A rule-making process would provide for public comment on what the contracts for managing public-access channels should include.

Collins said the issue is the public’s ability to provide input to how public-access contractors will be selected.

Public-access channels are required by state law on cable television franchises. In Maui County, Time Warner Oceanic Cable has rights to install and operate cable television systems on three islands and allocates five channels to public, educational and government access.

Under the state law, 3 percent of cable user fees goes to fund the operations of the public access channels.

In the case heard Thursday, Akaku’s complaint was against the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and its director, Lawrence Reifurth, and Aaron Fujioka, administrator of the state Procurement Office in the Department of Accounting and General Services.

State lawyers representing the agencies and directors said Friday that they and the agencies are reviewing the judge’s decision and are awaiting transcripts. Deputy Attorney General Rodney Tam, who represents, the DCCA, said department officials are “going to consider all their options” after looking at the transcripts of the hearing.

Collins said that August did not say how or when the state should conduct its rule making but warned if the rule making was not done or if Akaku was punished or if the department continues the procurement process before establishing procedural rules, August would grant an injunction.

On Thursday, August refused a motion by Collins for a preliminary injunction on the procurement process. But the judge denied it without prejudice, meaning the motion could be renewed if the Procurement Office does not comply with the judge’s ruling.

The complaint on which August acted is among several civil suits and objections filed by Collins related to the state procurement process for awarding management contracts on public access television.

The RFP process was required after questions were raised over the direct contracts provided to Akaku during a 2005 dispute over management and allocation of funds for educational programing. The state procurement officer ruled that the public access contracts should be issued through a competitive process, requiring contracts in all of the counties to be awarded through an RFP.

The Cable Television Division asked for an exemption but was denied.

In Maui County, programming is handled by Maui Community College on Channel 55 and the state Department of Education on Channel 56. Akaku manages programming on Channels 52, 53 and 54, with a contract with Maui County to produce and broadcast county agency events on Channel 53.

The dispute in 2005 was over whether Akaku is required to allocate a portion of the cable franchise funds to MCC and the DOE for their public-access channels.

After heated discussions by a sharply divided Akaku board, the board in February 2006 agreed to give up 25 percent of the fee revenues to MCC and the DOE, and four board members resigned.

Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.