As rail’s interim executive director for 2021, Lori Kahikina guided Hawaii’s largest-ever public works project through yet another tumultuous year – one that saw maddening construction woes, questionable contract awards and steep funding hurdles.
On Wednesday, Kahikina announced that starting next year she’ll shed the “interim” title to become Honolulu rail’s next permanent executive director.
The longtime civil service-sector executive signed a minimum two-year deal with the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s board earlier this week to lead the agency, she said in an interview on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight” program.
She’ll earn the same $275,000 base salary that she had during her year as interim director, Kahikina said. That’s more than what Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi earns but still less than the $317,000 base salary of Kahikina’s predecessor, Andrew Robbins, who was dismissed by the board when his contract expired.
Kahikina’s new contract also includes an option for a third year if the HART board sees fit, she added.
“It is a lot of money, and I am very humbled,” she said.
The move makes her the multibillion-dollar project’s third permanent executive director since HART was formed in 2011. Dan Grabauskas was HART’s first director before he also was dismissed by the board.
Kahikina, a former city environmental services director who once oversaw large, federally mandated sewer-system improvements across Oahu, will continue to lead HART as the agency tries to solve the persistent utility-relocation problems along Dillingham Boulevard that have crippled the transit project and helped dramatically inflate its costs.
It’s now expected to take four years to rearrange the crowded mix of wet and dry utility lines that run underneath Dillingham and hang overhead so that rail’s elevated path can be built, according to HART.
Kahikina will press to finally have the rail line’s first 10 miles ready to ride next year. That could be this summer at the earliest “if all the stars align,” she said Wednesday.
HART and the city’s goal to launch that interim passenger service to Aloha Stadium has been delayed for several years. In March, the public learned that the goal had hit yet another setback because crews had discovered in 2020 that the wheels did not run properly along the tracks at certain crossings.
So far, the rail agency hasn’t been able to fix the problem because no Hawaii-based companies are licensed to do the specialized welding work involved, HART has said.
Last month, Kahikina told the board that the state’s Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has agreed to an exemption that allows mainland-based companies to do the welding work as long as they apply for the necessary state license within 60 days of starting.
That DCCA exemption should enable the wheel and track fixes to begin soon, Kahikina told “Spotlight” on Wednesday.
Cutting Costs, Finding More Money
Kahikina also said HART is considering whether to eliminate the rail line’s Chinatown station and then shift its downtown station slightly to the west as a way to cut costs.
The rail agency would need to seek approval from city leaders as well as its partners at the Federal Transit Administration before taking such an action, Kahikina said. She added that any move to cut the Chinatown station might also be temporary, and that the facility could be built later.
Nonetheless, it’s the latest proposal in an effort to close the beleaguered rail project’s budget deficit, currently estimated at about $2 billion.
The City Council’s recent approval of a new transient accommodations tax, aimed mostly at island visitors, is expected to raise another $350 million toward rail construction and help trim the deficit, Kahikina said.
Still, it won’t be enough to close the funding gap for rail to reach Ala Moana, and on Wednesday Kahikina said the city might seek additional tax revenues for the project from the state Legislature.
Within months of becoming HART’s interim leader Kahikina purged nearly half of the rail agency’s staff. The move made sense to save costs during a relative lull in rail construction, she said.
HART’s partners at the Federal Transit Administration expressed concerns that the cuts went too deep, however. The local agency has endured high turnover throughout its decade-plus history, shedding considerable institutional knowledge about the project.
HART now estimates that it will cost $11.4 billion including financing charges to build the full 20-mile, 21-station driverless transit system to Ala Moana. It says the line needs to reach at least downtown to be functional. The system’s completion has further been delayed by more than a decade – it was originally supposed to be ready by 2020 but now isn’t expected to be done until 2031.
The latest cost estimate, which Kahikina presented to the City Council last month, is about $1 billion dollars less than the estimate that HART presented in March. Kahikina has characterized the March estimate as extremely conservative. She and her subordinates at HART have said that the new, lower estimate is based on an analysis by the firm Triunity Engineering and Management.
HART has not yet released to the public Triunity’s final report, however.
Further, the rail agency has refused to release under a Civil Beat public records request the initial report that Triunity gave HART.
The final Triunity report will be released on Friday ahead of the board’s next meeting, according to Kevin Whitton, vice president of Pang Communications. HART now forwards media inquiries to the local public relations firm.
‘We Don’t Try To Hide Things’
HART also faced considerable public scrutiny under Kahikina’s tenure this summer when emails revealed that board leaders planned to hire former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and Denis Dwyer with lucrative consulting contracts even before the competitive bidding process for those contracts had occurred.
Meanwhile, the rail agency has grown notably less responsive to media inquiries since the summer, making it more difficult to keep tabs on the transit project.
When asked about the Dwyer contract specifically, for example, Kahikina said in June she that “didn’t see an upside for me or HART” to respond to the query.
The situation culminated with Toby Martyn’s resignation as HART board chair. Hanabusa ended up taking his place as a volunteer instead of accepting the consulting contract. Dwyer kept his contract
On Wednesday, Kahikina insisted she tries to provide the public with updates and information.
“I try to be open, honest and transparent. We don’t try to hide things. (We) just try to change the perception of HART,” she said.
HART’s board members have routinely evaluated Kahikina’s job performance in private during the past year. They’ve also discussed a new employment agreement for the executive director in private.
So far, the board has issued no public report on Kahikina’s performance, although last month Hanabusa said that the board intended to offer Kahikina the permanent job.
HART did not issue a statement Wednesday on Kahikina’s becoming its permanent executive director. Hanabusa also did not respond to a request for comment.
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