The executive management team of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has faced challenges this month.
Those include the abrupt resignation of HART’s lead project director and a critical performance evaluation of the agency’s Executive Director and CEO Lori Kahikina.
In early April, HART Project Director Nate Meddings resigned from his three-year post to guide construction of the nearly $10 billion Skyline to Kakaako by 2031. HART said his departure was family-related.
“Nate Meddings and his family made a personal decision to relocate back to the mainland for family reasons,” a written statement reads. “His last day at HART was April 8.”
But Meddings’ resignation drew dismay from HART’s board, particularly during its April 12 Human Resources Committee meeting, where board Chair Colleen Hanabusa and CEO Kahikina loudly clashed over the matter.
“He made his decision already,” Kahikina told the board’s upset leader.
Hanabusa fired back, “But you didn’t think it was in the best interest of this project to talk to him about it and maybe say, ‘Hey look, calm down, we know it’s a difficult time, let’s talk about this. We’ll give you two weeks, go see how it is’?”
“He made his decision,” Kahikina replied.
“That’s not my point, Lori. My point is he’s somebody who’s critical to this project!” Hanabusa shot back.
To fill the director’s position, HART promoted Deputy Project Director Vance Tsuda.
“Mr. Tsuda joined HART in 2015 as an electrical engineer and has held several positions on the project including the Deputy Project Director position for the past year,” HART said in a written statement. “HART is very confident in Mr. Tsuda’s abilities to make this a seamless transition and continue the forward momentum of the project.”
At Friday’s board meeting, Michele Chun Brunngraber, the panel’s human Resources Committee chair, expressed concern over losing employees.
“It is just kind of another data point at how difficult it is to recruit and retain really critical personnel as they relate to this project,” she said.
She also noted Kahikina previously informed the board of the pending retirement of HART Deputy Executive Director Rick Keene, “and got a verbal confirmation that he would stay until the end of the calendar year,” Brunngraber said. “So that helps us because we thought he was going to retire in the summer.”
The project director’s departure coincides with the release of a performance evaluation of Kahikina that highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of her leadership during 2023.
The page-long evaluation notes that “in her third year as executive director and CEO, Ms. Kahikina’s leadership has been characterized by a mix of praiseworthy accomplishments and significant challenges.”
“As in 2022, Board members’ ratings varied greatly,” the report states. “All Board members’ ratings were treated with equal weight.”
The report asserts Kahikina “garnered support from and credibility with” the Federal Transit Administration, which maintains oversight over the Skyline project.
“She led HART to a successful transition to revenue operations, hired a contractor project controls director and fostered beneficial external relationships,” the report states.
However, Kahikina’s evaluation notes that “long-standing areas of improvement remain.”
It asserts that inadequate staffing has “affected morale and retention” of HART employees.
“No measurable improvement in HART staffing overall occurred in 2023, and HART’s metrics significantly trailed the average of Honolulu City and County employment metrics,” the report states.
Kahikina’s workplace communication style was also criticized.
“Evaluators pointed out her cooperation in subject matter meetings with board members, but with a trend of information control at the CEO level, which limited transparency and restricted the board’s access to vital details required for oversight,” the report states. “Questions about a perceived discrepancy between her official narrative and her staff’s facts and statements have been raised. Kahikina’s internal HART interactions have received widely mixed feedback, with a positive note on her collaboration with the Deputy Executive Director (Keene).”
Citing “significant concerns in staffing and transparency,” the job evaluation calls for “immediate attention for effective leadership and organizational success.”
“Nearly every reviewer strongly recommended addressing the ongoing staff turnover and loss of key personnel,” the report reads.
The board “strongly recommends” Kahikina use “an anonymous 360-degree evaluation and the retention of an executive coach in 2024 to enhance” her executive skills and leadership.
In her own defense, Kahikina provided a three-page response April 2.
In that response, she noted HART’s accomplishments — including the June 30 public opening of Skyline — and rebutted attacks on her leadership.
As far as staffing, Kahikina stated that HART operates “in a very challenging employment environment, particularly with recent hiring activity for very similar construction and engineering projects like the dry-dock project underway at Pearl Harbor where” the Navy and its private-sector contractors are able to offer “substantive compensation packages that exceed that which the city and HART can offer, thus our continued reliance on our own contracted team members.”
“We have put a great emphasis on recruiting and retention and will continue to do so in the future,” she added.
As far as low morale, Kahikina said that was not “a fair statement.”
“I have found the morale of our staff, overall, to remain positive and our turnover has been attributable to many different factors,” she wrote.
She also disagreed there has been a lack of transparency.
“I pride myself on being as transparent as possible,” she wrote. “But by the same token … there are several criticisms and assertions in my evaluation for which the underlying information has not been shared with me.”
“I do not think it is reasonable or productive to be evaluated on information that is gathered behind the scenes and not shared with me,” she added. “Transparency from the board is important also.”
Still, Kahikina said she was pleased that her “overall performance is positive.”
“And I will consider pursuing … the establishment of an anonymous 360-degree review process and the retention of an executive coach,” she said.
Kahikina’s contract with HART commenced on Jan. 1, 2021, as interim executive director and CEO. A year later, Jan. 1, 2022, she was named HART’s permanent top executive.
Kahikina earns a $275,000 base annual salary, which has remained unchanged since her hiring, HART says.
She may also receive an annual bonus of up to 20% of her base pay at the board’s discretion, but she has rejected any bonus to date, the agency says.
Kahikina’s predecessor, Andrew Robbins, received a base annual salary of $317,000, with an opportunity for up to 3.5% more for meeting performance-based objectives, plus a $62,200 annual housing and transportation allowance, HART says.
As of January there are 135 authorized city positions at HART.
At Friday’s board meeting Kahikina was briefly present but soon left and did not return.
Later, HART told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email that Kahikina notified the board she had a “conflicting meeting involving a claim negotiation.”
“Because of the conflict, she was excused from this morning’s board meeting,” HART said.
Meanwhile, scheduled reports at Friday’s meeting — including HART’s efforts to recruit and retain employees and discussion over Kahikina’s executive contract, which runs to the end of 2024 — were deferred until May.
