The City Council grilled members of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit Wednesday on points ranging from spending federal dollars for coloring books to the wisdom of approving preliminarily the sale of bonds they may reject later.

After several hours of verbal skirmishing, however, Council members voted to advance:

» Bill 31, which clears a $22.8 million operating budget for the agency as well as transfers of an expected $213 million in general excise tax revenues to be used for project costs.

» Bill 32, which approves $491.6 million in capital improvements for the $5.27 billion rail project, expected to run from East Kapolei to the Ala Moana area.

» Bill 33, which authorizes the sale of general obligation bonds of an undetermined amount for the transit project.

During the meeting, Councilman Romy Cachola demanded to know how much HART is spending on advertising, public relations and marketing.

HART interim Director Toru Hamayasu told the Council he would get members a breakdown, but then said, "I know we went through this before, but I don’t consider our (efforts) to be promotional. It’s informational. When we have construction anticipated, we provide information."

Councilman Tom Berg questioned the production of coloring books, glossy newsletters and other "trinkets" designed to market the rail project.

"This is pure propaganda in my opinion, pure propaganda," Berg said, adding that he thinks the items are "filled with misinformation."

Hamayasu said answers to many of the questions Council members and the public are asking are being provided in the newsletters.

"We provide the information through the newsletters and our websites," he said. "That’s our job."

Councilman Ikaika Anderson asked city lawyers if the Council would incur liability if it were to approve the general obligation bonds sale now, then reject issuance of an actual "bond float" later.

Deputy Corporation Counsel Diane Kawauchi said rejecting a bond issuance later would leave the CIP budget unbalanced.

"If the intention is that you will not, when the time comes, adopt a resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of bonds at that time, then that would be a problem for HART, (and) for the Council," she said.

The three bills now go back to the Budget Committee for further work.

The meeting was the second time in a week Council members raised hard questions about HART and the Carlisle administration.

On March 15, Budget Committee members expressed skepticism when they were told by Hamayasu that it would cost more for the city to delay start of construction on the project’s foundation work until it receives final word about $1.55 billion in federal funding than if it were to begin now, then have to tear down the structures later.

Hamayasu reiterated that statement Wednesday, insisting that inflation would drive costs up by 50 percent if the city were to stall.