jOne of the regular stops on my online document checks in the Honolulu City Council’s Docushare system, which manages public documents that flow through the city.

The Docushare system is way ahead of anything offered by the state in terms of the breadth of documents it contains and the relative ease of use.

I usually start with the current department communications (click through Legislative Branch Collection–2009–Communications 2009–Departmental Communications 2009), where quite often there are interesting things tucked away. You never know what you might find, which makes it interesting.

There’s a drop-down menu at the top of the document listing which allows you to choose the latest documents, which are filed in order of the numbers assigned.

For example, in the list of documents # 721-740, you’ll notice a common feature–notices of Unbudgeted temporary positions. There are five such requests among these 20 documents.

Given the way that “temporary” positions can morph into perpetually renewed “temporary” jobs, contrary to the way such things are supposed to work, these unbudgeted temp positions can be significant and are worth wading through.

How about the “Energy Consumption Report” filed for the prior fiscal year, showing total use of electricity, diesel, gasoline, biodiesel, and propane for each city department? I’m sure there are stories buried there.

Backtrack a bit and you can peruse Miscellaneous Communications, which includes testimony submitted to the city council on pending bills. It’s an easy way to see what’s “hot” at the council.

The Docushare system can also be searched using the search box displayed at the top of each page. I searched for “Ian Lind” in the 2009 communications and one document was returned, a letter regarding rail that cited this blog using my name. Repeating the search to look through other years came up with several other documents.

I often use this to look up information about our neighborhood, specific issues or topics, and people or companies that I am backgrounding. It’s a great resource.

Of course, there are more focused sets of documents. Council agendas and minutes for the full council and its committees, internal Council communications, messages from the mayor, there’s even a section for “Petitions”, also worth browsing.

The system takes a little getting used to, so I recommend browsing it from time to time and getting a sense of what’s available.