WAILUKU - A Maui judge has ordered the state to release a legal opinion on why public-access television contracts should be awarded by competitive bid, The Maui News reported today.

Officials with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs had said they were advised by Attorney General Mark Bennett that state procurement law should apply to public-access television. But the DCCA refused to release the opinion, citing "attorney-client privilege." Aka-ku:Maui Community Television sued, saying the opinion should be public.

Second Circuit Judge Joel August agreed. On Monday he issued an order supporting part of Akaku's motion for summary judgment. He ordered the DCCA to release Bennett's opinion letter to him by Nov. 15. He said he would review its contents and redact anything exempt from open-records laws before releasing it.

"I'm shocked and fascinated," said Lance Collins, attorney for Akaku. "It's great for the public."

Akaku has fought the DCCA's moves to put its contract out to competitive bid. The basis of the department's position has been the attorney general's opinion letter, but that letter has been "secret," Collins said.

"There's no way to know what it called for," he said.

The release of the letter would be "very helpful" to Akaku as it makes its case against a competitive-bid process, he said.

August found that the letter met the attorney general's own criteria for when an opinion should be made public: It responded to a legal inquiry made by the director of a state department - DCCA Director Lawrence Reifurth - and dealt with a question of "significant importance" to the public.

At the same time, he said the department poked a hole in its own claim of "attorney-client privilege" by frequently citing the opinion and revealing what it contained.

"Reifurth has put two important statutory provisions in competition by using the attorney-client privilege as both a sword and a shield," August wrote.

The DCCA designates organizations to run "public-access, educational and government" cable-television programs. The programs receive funds and cable channels provided by Oceanic Time Warner as part of the latter's franchise fees.

Akaku and similar nonprofit organizations were set up in the 1990s to manage the stations, and have operated under nonbid contracts.

The state is continuing with plans to develop a bidding process, with public hearings scheduled next month on Molokai and Maui. The times and dates of those hearings are: 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 7 at Kulana 'Oiwi, which is the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and Office of Hawaiian Affairs complex on Molokai, and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Cameron Center in Wailuku.

Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.