Emails suggest problems with rail

Former Gov. Ben Cayetano on Tuesday released internal emails from the Federal Transit Administration that question whether some steps taken to advance the city rail project were done properly or complied with federal environmental law.

Another internal email distributed at a Cayetano news conference criticized what one FTA staff member described as the city’s "lousy practices of public manipulation" in connection with the rail project.

Cayetano is running for mayor and has said he will halt the rail project if elected. He predicted the emails from FTA staff "will only increase the public’s disgust and disappointment with how the city has managed the rail project."

The emails were exchanged between FTA staff members in 2006, 2009 and 2010, and Cayetano said they were part of a collection of an estimated 500,000 documents that make up the administrative record for the $5.27 billion project.

The city recently delivered that administrative record to a group of rail opponents who are suing in federal court to try to block the project.

Cayetano is part of that group, and quickly moved to take political advantage of the release of the records in the court case by distributing the emails to reporters at the news conference at his campaign headquarters.

An FTA spokesman responded yesterday with a written statement restating the agency’s support for the project. City officials deferred to the FTA for comment.

"There is no question that this project has overcome early obstacles because of a much improved federal partnership with the City of Hono­lulu and State of Hawaii over the last several years," the FTA statement said."The Federal Transit Administration believes that this project will bring much needed relief from the suffocating congestion on H-1 and provide a real transportation alternative for the people of Oahu when gas prices rise."

The rail critics’ lawsuit alleges the environmental impact statement for the rail project is flawed and violates the National Environmental Policy Act in a variety of ways. The suit claims the city failed to properly consider what some believe are potentially viable alternatives to rail, including toll roads or improvements to the bus system.

The lawsuit asks the federal court to block construction of the system until a supplemental environmental impact statement is done to correct those and other alleged problems with the impact statement.

Cayetano said the emails suggest the FTA shared some of those concerns, and "they warned the city about pending litigation if certain things were not done."

One of the emails Cayetano cited Tuesday was written by Joseph Ossi, an environmental protection specialist with the FTA. In that 2009 email, Ossi notes that the Environmental Protection Agency asked why light rail and an improved bus transit system were not considered as alternatives to rail in the city’s environmental impact statement.

According to the email Cayetano distributed, Ossi warned that "unless we have good justification in the public NEPA record for eliminating the EPA alternative from consideration, we would be extremely vulnerable in a NEPA suit, and there are numerous potential litigants. If we do not have good justification in the public NEPA record for eliminating the EPA alternative from consideration, then we should supplement the NEPA record. That will take time, but not as much time as litigation."

Cayetano said he still has seen no explanation in the record that explains why enhanced bus transit was excluded, and now that decision is an issue in the federal lawsuit.

Cayetano also cited a 2006 email from FTA staffer Raymond Sukys to Ossi stating that the FTA issued "an erroneous NOI (Notice of Intent to prepare the EIS for the project)." The FTA issued a new notice of intent in 2007.

The Sukys email said it seemed likely the project would be challenged in court.

"I do not think the FTA should be associated with their lousy practices of public manipulation and we should call them on it," Sukys wrote in the email Cayetano distributed.

Cayetano said that suggests at least one FTA official shared the concerns of rail opponents who are unhappy that the city has spent millions of dollars on public relations efforts to "sell rail" to the public.

Cayetano acknowledged the FTA in recent months has granted the city some key approvals, including permission for the city to proceed to final design, and permission for the city to begin some construction activities at city expense.

City officials say those FTA approvals are a sign the federal government has complete confidence in the project, but Cayetano said he believes the project has been badly mismanaged.

"I think the only reason this thing is still alive and has not been rejected by the FTA is because of a very, very powerful senator (Daniel Ino­uye) who chairs the Appropriations Committee," Cayetano said.