New rail director will inherit agency plagued by turnover
GEORGE F. LEE / 2015
“It does make you take note. To me, it’s more about whether there’s something happening in the agency that’s causing them to leave,” - Mike Formby, HART acting executive director, who’s slated to leave the city and his role at the rail agency next month.
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s new interim director, who’s expected to be announced today, will inherit a rail agency that has seen high turnover among managers and board members in the past two years.
Since 2015, at least a dozen directors, managers and other prominent personnel have left the largest public works project in state history, a Honolulu Star-Advertiser analysis found. They each logged between two and seven years working on rail, and their departure came during a tumultuous two years in which rail’s projected costs rose by about $3.3 billion.
Those who left oversaw various aspects of the project, including design and construction, operation and maintenance, property acquisitions, contract procurement and public communications.
“It does make you take note,” said HART Acting Executive Director Mike Formby, who is also slated to leave the city and his role at the rail agency next month to pursue other interests. “To me, it’s more about whether there’s something happening in the agency that’s causing them to leave.”
Formby, a former HART board member, said it’s unclear whether the turnover at “key levels” has hurt the project, but that he plans to address the issue with the board. Perhaps, Formby said, HART needs to conduct exit interviews to learn whether the pay, personalities, Hawaii’s remote location, the “challenges and issues” affecting rail, or some other issue is spurring departures.
Five of the rail board’s nine directors have also left the project since 2015, including all three of its former chairpersons: Carrie Okinaga, Ivan Lui-Kwan and Don Horner. Some of them pursued other opportunities while others were pressured by city leaders to leave.
A sixth board member, former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who serves as its chairwoman, is slated to leave before the Nov. 8 general election that could send her back to the U.S. Congress.
HART reports that 35 employees have left the semiautonomous agency since January 2015, with seven of the positions still unfilled. The agency has a staff of about 112, said HART spokesman Bill Brennan, and it’s budgeted for up to 139 employees. Brennan said nearly 40 HART employees have been with the agency since 2011, when it launched to oversee the rail project.
This month, HART devoted part of its website’s interview show, “Honolulu on the Move,” to the benefits of working there and the various positions available. HART Administrative Services Officer Paul Romaine told Brennan that it’s “definitely” a challenge to find the expertise the project needs.
“One of the concerns for the Federal Transit Administration was that we would actually be able to staff HART with people that were able to build this rail project, since obviously there’s not a lot of rail experience here in Honolulu,” Romaine said. “We’ve been pretty successful attracting superqualified candidates.
“We’ve been pretty lucky,” he added.
Brennan said the agency devoted the monthly interview to employment opportunities because “we’ve had lots of people asking about working at HART.”
How unusual HART’s turnover level is compared with other rail projects and agencies isn’t clear, but similar mainland agencies said they value institutional knowledge and low turnover rates.
“We have seen a lot of stability at our organization,” said Susan Tierney, a spokeswoman for Valley Metro, which operates the Phoenix area’s bus and light-rail service. “We have tremendous talent here at the agency that has remained with the agency. We have really remained constant.”
TransLink, the transit agency for the Vancouver area in British Columbia, touted its reported 2 percent turnover rate for 2015. “We offer a variety of employee-retention incentives,” TransLink spokeswoman Cheryl Ziola said in an email Wednesday.
In August, when Dan Grabauskas resigned as HART’s executive director after four years, Hanabusa said, “There’s always a concern about the loss of institutional knowledge.”
“But we … have very good staff,” she added. “So we believe that we have the knowledge that we need within the staff structure as well.”
54 responses to “New rail director will inherit agency plagued by turnover”
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I hope that the new HART CEO will conduct the peer review for rail that was recommended by (soon to be leaving) Chair Colleen Hanabusa. I recommend that the review group includes an engineering team that can describe how the steel wheels on steel rails (SWSR) system can be converted to an urban magnetic levitation (maglev) system that will not only be operationally superior to SWSR but also much more cost-effective. Additionally, a maglev conversion can be implemented within the available funding limit without need for a surcharge extension, more federal money, or increased property taxes. Those numbers have been submitted to the members of both the HART Board and the City Council. Their members’ failure to consider how maglev can save the rail project would indicate that everything you hear about Plan A and Plan B is nothing more than “smoke and mirrors” and we will be stuck with a $10 billion price tag to reach Ala Moana.
IMO, the problem is kirk Caldwell. He needs to get the boot. Re-electing him is insanity and would be giving him a blank check to finish rail, damn the costs.
Yes, Everybody remember ” Rail will be built On Time and On Budget ” !
CALDWELL has to GO !!
Another wooden stake into the inept HART of the $29.8 Billion Dollar TITANIC RAIL SCAM from no where to no where and much more than a Blight !!!
WHEN IS FBI GOING TO INVESTIGATE CORRUPT TITANIC RAIL SCAM ???
RUSTY THE HATED SCREECHING STEEL ON STEEL ELEVATED HEAVY RAIL REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN & AGAIN AS CALDWELL TRY’S TO TURN THE RAIL INTO THE BIGGEST BOONDOGGLE IN HISTORY. Built on a foundation of lies, deception and backroom cash laden deals the choo choo has become a NIGHTMARE FOR HONOLULU. WAKE UP HONOLULU AND STOP THIS MONSTER AT THE STADIUM AND TURN THE EXISTING GUIDE WAY INTO A REVERSABLE HIGHWAY FOR ALL LEEWARD RESIDENTS TO USE. Just think, No new taxes and No future RAIL CAR PURCHASES, No more overhead and no need for another power plant to run da mayors choo choo.
Vote Djou for a chance at THINKING in our city Government cause Caldwell is a RAIL PUPPET
Not voting for Caldwell and all of the other dim wits that want rail.
Charlie has stated he wants the train to go all the way to ala moana, he’s not against it. Ben Cayetano was our last hope.
Like rats leaving a sinking ship. If you want a project to be completed on time and within budget keep politics out of it. Keep in mind Democrats always have their hands out.
I disagree. It’s more of an experience and judgement matter. There’s politics in all major and often minor infrastructure works across the world. We had to negotiate with central to local governments, and they in turn had to go back to the people to varying degrees. India, for example, is very hard to do infrastructure (explained to me by a local as being “overly democratic”), but it gets done after a prolonged process. I think it’s more of an education, experience and judgement issue that contributed to massive errors in planning. In countries that graduate more engineers and science majors, I’ve had much less difficult times on the technical and finance issues. And I’ve never seen a project this far out of whack financially, even in squirrelly project places like Thailand. But even they got elevated toll roads and other transport infrastructure done without this kind of subpar leadership we have. Why? Because they didn’t have the hubris to go it alone without real expert advice and very good studies from World Bank, etc. Our trusted government inflicted bogus project parameters on the public based on incomplete planning. And I doubt the leaders like Mufi and his henchmen, including Caldwell, even realized how weak the planning was. Design/build contracts with a greenfield project where there is no existing internal experience in rail operations is not recommended. If this is the MTRC planning a rail project with all their expertise, yes. Otherwise get a turnkey EPC with fully qualified owners engineers working for you, so the contract package prices it in. It was a fallacy to get “cost savings” with the current contract structure. I’ve heard that line for years from clients trying to reduce costs, but in my opinion, you got to pay for entrenched experience, one way or another. We took the far more problematic course. The usual companies I expected to see never even submitted bids for a reason. They don’t want to waste millions on project bids that are pie in the sky dreaming. What does it say when we select a near insolvent company as equipment suppliers? Why arent we even seeing efforts to restructure into EPC like package? I don’t want to ramble on more about what should have happened. I’m just disgusted that after I retire from infrastructure I come back home and I get this kind of nonsense inflicted on me with huge tax increases. Us retired people don’t have the same kind of income as before.
With a new president and Congress, the climate of rail funding will change…
Hopefully, Ernie will get on board for support of rail funding. No need for more of his grandstanding.
The climate of rail funding? Thank you for admitting you lied. You said rail was already paid for.
We’ll what happens to our next cost projections.
No Lie. Hart’s last projection was within budget.
Last projection was within budget? 6.8 billion to reach Middle street? You’re kiddong (or lying).
BREAKING NEWS= wiliki is a LIAR & the RAIL IS ON ITS WAY TO 20 BILLION DOLLARS–WOW— & it will be obsolete prior to its maiden voyage
what a JOKE ON HONOLULU
Wonder is the liar here…
I have to say wiliki that every single thing I have said has been the truth and I have been 100% spot on
each issue from the cost, quality, route, bribery, payoffs & deceit that has occurred in Honolulu Hale and mostly at the mayor’s office. The RAIL IS SURE TO FAIL AS IT IS ALREADY FALLING APART
Formby said, “HART needs to conduct exit interviews to learn about the issues that’s spurring departures.’ Does it really matter as to why people are leaving or have left HART? Formby is also slated to leave the city and his role at the rail agency to pursue other interests. How precise can the reason be for everyone that left HART…to pursue other interest, simple as that. Focus on the problem…incompetent and unknowledgeable people trying to build a rail system, not why people are leaving or left.
Exit interviews are an important part of a human resources program. We do it with all of our staff. You learn a lot because people are more willing to open up to you when they leave the enterprise. It’s helped us see things that we needed to address to improve retention. Any entity that experiences high turnover should do exit interviews.
Most CEO’s/Directors/Managers are set in their way of managing…it’s my way or the highway. As you’ve mentioned, exit interviews are just a part of the human resources program…just formality. Personal opinions haven’t made changes, it’s business as usual.
Nope bad response… exit interviews have good benefits. And we do discuss them at length.
No company can survive competition if it can’t figure out why it’s losing key staff to it’s competition.
wiliki: Yeah right! You’ve discussed them at length but who really cares what was said by the ex-employee. Companies survive because it has managers that knows how to manage and keeps the morale of the company at a high level. Further more, it’s none of the companies business as to why an employee is leaving to pursuit other interests.
This is true only to a degree. The person leaving will not be forthcoming if for example they do not already have another job to go to.
They will be hesitant to to fully honest suspecting that this may hurt any chance to be given a favorable recommendation if the company is contacted by
a prospective employer.
They generally already have another job waiting when they resign. No need to hold back.
If only Kirk Caldwell would join those leaving….he has his $250,000 a year bank job. He should be ok financially.
People need to vote for change. Planning and management of the rail project has been worse than poor under kirk Caldwell.
the reality is it is CALDWELL’S FAULT.HE NEEDS TO RESIGN IN SHAME
Baloney. Planning and managemen have improved. Construction is going very fast now.
Baloney. 6 years behind schedule is not fast.
When voting time comes around on November 8, 2016. Vote Djou. I think he will do a better job.
The turnover in HART leadership is the least of the city problems vexing rail. Our elected lawmakers and officials haven’t gotten any grip on this taxpayer funded program and all that they have done is communicate wrong, unrealistic and false benefits us. Realistic cost to build and, costs to operate information is non existent. Until they do, any potential HART director will have to factor in his or hers decision to get involvesd will be knowing that any scenario with a chance of saving rail centers on taxing Hawaii’s taxpayers significantly more than what they pay already and keeping your reputation. And if rail doesn’t workout – will Hawaii elected officials are good at casting blame…………
Rail is a Ponzi scheme. They suckered the Oahu people into the rail project and we keep pouring money into it, only to see no returns. And even as we keep pouring money into rail, all we get are promises of returns from the rail shills but by the time the voters on Oahu realize what’s going on, it’s already too late, just like a Ponzi scheme.
Stop rail now is the only solution.
Tear it down, cut our losses. Disband HART. No one member of HART knowsanything about building a rail.
This Titanic which is our Rail is DOOMED !!!
Who the hell wants to inherit this mess??? Oh wait….. just do what the others have done, take the six figure salary for a few years then leave.
grabauskas, who was the head clown in the rail project, got a nice golden parachute.
Rail is sinking just like its construction pillars, going down together.
A new song for the islands
(In my little grass shack on the GIANT CEMENT MONSTER THAT WAS HALF BUILT BY CALDWELL)
OR
The Honolulu rail is falling down, falling down the Honolulu rail is falling down)
oh my:
what you mean is it is REALLY FALLING DOWN AND FALLING APART BEFORE ITS EVEN BUILT
vote
So who is the new HART chief? Burns? Nothing changes as long as Krookwell is around.
“One of the concerns for the Federal Transit Administration was that we would actually be able to staff HART with people that were able to build this rail project, since obviously there’s not a lot of rail experience here in Honolulu,” Romaine said. “We’ve been pretty successful attracting superqualified candidates.
“We’ve been pretty lucky,” he added.”
WHAT THEY HELL! THEY ARE ALL A BUNCH OF DOOFUSES. FIRE THEM ALL. THIS SO CALLED PROJECT IS BLEEDING US DRY.
How do I apply for the job of Rail Director? The guy in charge of the “Big Dig” in Boston (largest over budget public works project in history) gets FIRED… (with a sweet severance payment). He moves to Honolulu and takes over the rail project… ( now the largest over budget public works project in history)… gets FIRED, again… (with a sweet severance payment). So how do I get the job, screw it up more than it already is for a year, and the city gives me a quarter million dollars to quit. America, What A Country. LOL LOL LOL
I disagree with Hanabusa regarding competent staff. I would characterize the rail project as being managed by incompetents. How else can you characterize their performance after seeing the project realize a $3.3 billion cost overrun…and still counting.
Rats leaving a sinking ship….
“To me, it’s more about whether there’s something happening in the agency that’s causing them to leave.”
to me, it’s more about members’ consciences catching up to them. tired of lying for kurk.
I smell corruption and labor unions meddling.
The problem is politics; the constant backstabbing and non-support of council members. Also, the spitefull, constant opposition of sore losers (the Cayetano gang). They don’t have good people management skills.
In the mean time Iggy is proposing an increase on gas tax and/or taxing by mileage. Can they just stop for one minute and not look for more ways to bleed us? We fund the eternal credit card for these politicians to purchase whatever they want as they please their special interest groups. Legal theft is the best description I can come up with. Insanity continues……
Dan Grabauskas was the worst thing that ever happened to rail. I still can’t figure out why they would hire someone who already made a mess in Boston,now here and he still got bonuses and made a fortune. It is all very suspicious!
Hanabusa, you are political just like veryone else. You say you grew up in Waianae. You are a big joke. When one person leaves okay, when another person leaves, well someone needs to see what is going on and then another. Something is wrong with this picture. But you, Hanabusa say: But we … have very good staff,” she added. “So we believe that we have the knowledge that we need within the staff structure as well.” Lie, lie and more lies. Can you sleep at nights knowing what is going on and ripping off the people of Hawaii. You come from Waianae or right. You and HART are just ripping out the heart of people of Hawaii. Wonder why there is no more ALOHA. Look in the mirror.
Be like a gold miner…..get the gold then get the heck out of there!
This month, HART devoted part of its website’s interview show, “Honolulu on the Move,” to the benefits of working there and the various positions available. HART Administrative Services Officer Paul Romaine told Brennan that it’s “definitely” a challenge to find the expertise the project needs.
“One of the concerns for the Federal Transit Administration was that we would actually be able to staff HART with people that were able to build this rail project, since obviously there’s not a lot of rail experience here in Honolulu,” Romaine said. “We’ve been pretty successful attracting superqualified candidates.
“We’ve been pretty lucky,” he added.
Brennan said the agency devoted the monthly interview to employment opportunities because “we’ve had lots of people asking about working at HART.”
If everything is so hunky-dory…why such a turnover!
Brennan is a “spin doctor” twisting the truth to make it sound right!
The jobs are definitely not for any local resident as they already admitted “…obviously there’s not a lot of rail experience here in Honolulu,”
How can I apply for a job working on the choo choo when it’s up and running?….Oops I forgot, they can’t run the train as THERE IS NO OPERATING BUDGET!
Bankruptcy…or Congressional Bailout for the City and State…the people’s choice.
I give the new rail director 6 months before realizing what a big mess this is, and then quits!
Not before he gets his golden parachute. He is no fool which is maybe why he is smiling so broadly.
Could it be that he figures he is going to take these dumb yokels for a ride, just like all the others who have gotten to wet their beaks on this project.
Now this is FUNNY! “Perhaps, Formby said, HART needs to conduct exit interviews to learn whether the pay, personalities, Hawaii’s remote location, the “challenges and issues” affecting rail, or some other issue is spurring departures”. These incompetent people can’t even figure out that people are leaving because they made big mistakes in their job, made a mess of the project, and don’t want to be holding the bag when the day of reckoning arrives. That includes Formby who was involved for many years on this rail job.