Legislators eager to know future of UH-West Oahu

News item: "WESTFIELD, Mass. » Team 5 Investigates has learned the state inspector general has begun an investigation into questionable spending by Dr. Evan Dobelle, the president of Westfield State University.

"Dobelle and university staff dodged Team 5’s requests for records and an interview for months but greeted us with a handshake and smile when Team 5 showed up unexpectedly at a board of trustees meeting.

"Team 5 reviewed the 2011 travel expenses for the leaders of every university in the state system and found Dobelle has taken the most trips and spent the most money."

That’s from a Friday report from Boston television station WCVB. This week, while the investigation heats up, it must be some relief to University of Hawaii officials that Dobelle is a former UH president and not on this week’s worry list.

Summing up the UH worries are easy. They can be summarized with a single number: 2014.

Next year is shaping up to be a yawning hole in the always testy relationship between town and gown.

Last month, Rep. Isaac Choy, chairman of the House Higher Education committee, held a meeting with UH officials responsible for running the new West Oahu facility. The meeting turned out to be the opening steps in the sort of audit that Choy does in his other job as a CPA. Accounts of the meeting did not include anyone saying that legislators now feel better about UH.

There are serious concerns about the West Oahu budget, which legislators say does not reflect enough money coming in to pay for planned and needed construction.

There are worries about how the university bureaucracy or West Oahu administrators will handle the rest of the development of the West Oahu campus. And there are questions about paying off debt incurred by UH during construction.

West Oahu consists of more than 500 acres of land given by Campbell Estate for developing the school. UH has already sold off two parcels of the land and is in the process of planning what to do with the rest. Legislators are nervous about UH’s ability or need to get into the land-planning business.

Will UH lease or sell land? Will UH apply for rezoning? Will new staff be hired to do this? Is there a plan and an expected outcome?

The Legislature has even more questions, but is awaiting answers from the university.

Also at last month’s West Oahu meeting was Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, who happily divided her interrogation between UH administrators and members of the Board of Regents.

"I don’t want to micromanage. We are not micromanaging. But UH has to be accountable," Kim said.

According to Kim’s bill of reckoning, UH incurred $22.8 million in cost overruns while building West Oahu. That was partially because there were 78 change orders during construction of the $150 million campus, which is designed for just 7,500 students.

"The Board of Regents and the president were not holding anyone accountable," Kim said in an interview.

"Maybe if they had not had $22 million in change orders, they would have had the money to build the administration building," said Kim.

Regarding predictions for 2014, UH has an interim president, at least three new members of the Board of Regents are expected to be nominated shortly, and there is a great uncertainty of how and when a new permanent president will be selected.

As for the Legislature, UH West Oahu is one of three bulging files that Choy is working on for next year.

And Kim has refined her UH worries into a detailed PowerPoint presentation that accompanies her to all community meetings.

———

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.