The city has resolved — belatedly — to treat the Fixed Guideway Technology Selection Panel as a board that's subject to the state Sunshine Law. The proof of that resolve will come today in how the panel conducts its first open meeting, starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Mission Memorial Auditorium.

However, it's already starting to look as if this gesture of openness came a little late. Panos Prevedouros, University of Hawai'i transit engineer and panel member, said that he and three other members — Ken Knight, Henry Kolesar and Steven Barsony — already met via two teleconferences. During the one on Feb. 1, they selected the fifth member and chairman, Ron Tober, who has been criticized for his management of the Charlotte, N.C., transit system.

Both of those meetings should have been open to the public. Clearly, this panel could use guidance from the state Office of Information Practices, which should have given a formal opinion on the Sunshine Law, spelling out all the requirements of compliance. OIP closed the case instead, when city attorneys said the panel would comply voluntarily.

OIP officials seem unmoved by pleas to reopen the case, so perhaps passage of a legislative measure, Senate Bill 1773, would bring needed clarity. The bill would require advisory committees that make recommendations to expend public money on goods, services or capital projects to be subject to the sunshine, public records and financial disclosure laws.

It's sad that we'd need a new statute making that explicit, but apparently the city needs a nudge.

Even if the measure fails or is enacted too late to affect the panel, the city is now on notice: The public expects to be clued in on the deliberations over which technology would best suit Honolulu's needs.

Some of the information submitted by competing companies may be shielded from public view because it is proprietary, but other commissions have dealt with the same challenge in the past. The rational basis for the selection of a technology surely can be discussed openly, even if some financial or technical specifications can't be.

When billions of taxpayer dollars are about to be committed to a project, backroom discussions can't be tolerated. Let the sun shine in.