Mayor Kirk Caldwell, like The Outdoor Circle, strongly opposes billboards in Hawaii.

However, as mayor representing all of Oahu’s residents, including 220,000-plus daily bus riders, the mayor has an obligation to ask the tough questions, get the facts and make informed decisions.

It’s unfortunate The Outdoor Circle and the Star-Advertiser have prejudged this issue before the facts are in. Both Vermont and Maine have shown that it is possible to have exterior bus advertising while still outlawing billboards. What’s to say the City and County of Honolulu cannot do the same? It has been 10 years since the city discussed exterior bus advertising. A lot has changed since then.

In 2003, TheBus and TheHandi-Van cost $135 million to operate. Today, the system costs $225 million, an 80 percent increase in operational costs. During the same 10-year period, Oahu’s population increased about 10 percent.

In 2013, in response to complaints from bus riders following service cuts in 2012, Mayor Caldwell made improvements to TheBus. The reality, however, is that more service improvements are necessary and would have been made had funds been available.

For many of the daily riders, public transit is a necessity. In the industry it’s referred to as "transportation equity," recognizing that public transit serves as a lifeline to opportunity for these transit riders who depend upon affordable and reliable public transit with meaningful connections to get them to their jobs, health care services, grocery stores, schools and worship services.

The mayor and I met with the executive director and president of The Outdoor Circle before Bill 69 was filed and informed them the mayor continues to strongly oppose billboards. We also informed them that the city was not seeking to advertise at bus shelters, on bus benches, in bus transit centers, on TheHandi-Vans or use bus wraps (multisided advertisements).

The proposed bill is also specific to "bus" transit and would not apply to rail.

To that end, we will be introducing an amendment to Bill 69 clarifying our proposal at the first committee hearing.

Some $8 million a year may not seem like much to The Outdoor Circle and the Star-Advertiser, but to transit riders relying upon TheBus as their lifeline to opportunity, it is everything.

We hope this clarifies our position and we look forward to an engaging conversation with all who have an interest in this important issue.