Policy conflict could cost Oahu $15M

Oahu could eventually lose some $15 million a year in federal highway dollars — money used to help fix and build local roads, bike paths, sidewalks and other projects — if a conflict over state and federal transportation policy isn’t fixed, local officials warn.

The problem stems from an often overlooked local agency — the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization — and what role that group should play in the long-term planning for one of the nation’s most traffic-plagued areas.

OMPO’s members include local elected officials and transportation agency heads.

"We’re not DOT employees," OMPO Executive Director Brian Gibson stressed Thursday — a reference to worsening tensions with the state’s Department of Transportation and its grip over OMPO, which is also at the heart of the funding concerns.

"We’re an independent agency," Gibson said.

Hawaii state law dating back to the 1970s relegates OMPO to a mostly advisory role. But federal law requires that groups such as OMPO be the ultimate decision-makers for their regions’ transportation planning. The federal government also certifies these groups before sending millions of highway dollars to each of them.

Now local OMPO officials are beginning to express concerns publicly that their certification ­and many of the highway dollars that come with it could be at risk if state law isn’t changed soon to reflect federal regulations.

A Federal Highway Administration spokes­man said Friday that it’s "unclear at this time" whether OMPO would lose its certification or any highway dollars, but based on recent correspondence it’s clear that they’re keeping a close eye on the situation.

"I don’t think it’s an imminent danger. I don’t think it’s going to happen tomorrow or next week," Gibson said earlier this week. But it’s up to the federal transportation officials to decide when "enough is enough" and "how noncompliant is noncompliant," he added.

Federal transportation officials are slated to visit OMPO’s local offices and operation this summer to help decide whether to recertify the group.

Compounding OMPO’s concerns is its belief that the state’s DOT has seized too much control over the planning process at OMPO’s expense and that OMPO’s policy committee has for too long served as little more than a "rubber stamp" for state and city transportation priorities.

"It’s the policy committee that should be, at some level, exploring all planning options, and that’s simply not occurring," Gibson said. "We’re not working up to our potential. The way the OMPO is pushed is into doing really the absolute bare minimum and nothing more."

DOT officials said they do see OMPO as the "policy-setting agency" for long-term transportation planning on Oahu,­ but they add that it’s DOT’s role to ensure "grant oversight and compliance with federal regulations."

Following a recent audit of OMPO, DOT officials stripped the group of its procurement powers and said they aim to reclaim unspent "excess" reserve dollars from OMPO. They’ve also withheld 2014 funding until OMPO agrees to remove a Central Oahu traffic study plan, recent correspondence shows.

DOT officials say the study was poorly defined. But Gibson says those reserve dollars were needed for future projects and that such "unilateral" DOT moves could threaten OMPO’s recertification and cost "tens of millions of dollars in surface projects on Oahu."

In a December letter, FHWA’s Hawaii division director, Abraham Wong, reminded the state’s top transportation official, DOT Director Glenn Oki­moto, that federal law does not consider groups such as OMPO to be "advisers."

Wong also reminded Oki­moto that "HDOT is a member of the Oahu MPO Policy Committee and has one vote."

His letter further expressed support for OMPO’s efforts to bring its policies in line with federal law, and noted that such groups are "neither expected nor required to be subordinate to state transportation agencies."

In a subsequent letter, sent in January, Hono­lulu City Councilman and former OMPO Policy Committee Chairman Breene Hari­moto urged Gov. Neil Abercrombie to work to change the state’s laws on OMPO during this year’s legislative session — ahead of this summer’s recertification visit by federal officials — to help protect the island’s federal highway dollars.

"I believe that it is essential for our state statute to be in conformance and compatible with federal law to assure the continued receipt of federal FHWA and FTA funds," Hari­moto wrote.

Nonetheless, Abercrombie said he believed it best to wait until 2015 to take up the issue. "This will give us the necessary time for a comprehensive, orderly, and proper legal review and revisions" of the state law on OMPO, he wrote in a Jan. 24 response.

OMPO’s newly elected Policy Committee chairman, state Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), said members would bring up the issue at their next meeting, likely in April.

"We’re not going to let that happen," he said of the potential lapse in federal funding. "That would be devastating, if that were the case."