The mayor’s job involves myriad municipal duties, from managing roads, parks and sewers to grappling with Honolulu’s crushing homelessness crisis. The city’s top executive is to be judged on how well he juggles these objectives, that compete for city revenue. And yes, character and transparency matter, too.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell has nearly finished four years in office and has posted progress in some of the basic tasks of municipal management — those aforementioned parks, roads and sewers have seen some improvement.
However, the dominant concern in this election is the completion of Honolulu’s rail project, which has been stymied with skyrocketing costs, delays and engineering problems. And it’s on the basis that the sitting mayor shows the most resolve and the more realistic plan to finish the project that he should be returned to office for a second term.
His opponent in the race, Charles Djou, also has raised some legitimate concerns about Caldwell’s continuing role on the board of Territorial Savings Bank. The position has yielded a salary and lucrative stock options arising from the bank going public in 2009.
Caldwell should have more readily provided full details of his compensation package when he disclosed the arrangement with the city Ethics Commission. In the interest of removing what’s at least the appearance of conflict, Caldwell should step down from that post and have no competing loyalty with the job at hand: running the city effectively for four more years.
On the rail issue, Caldwell has to own a share in the project’s woes, but is not wholly at fault for them. Construction has been run by the semi-autonomous Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, though overseen by a board including the mayor’s appointees. The mayor should have been more circumspect and forthcoming about HART’s cost projections, something that Caldwell now acknowledges.
But the bottom line today is that Caldwell, recently rebuffed in his request for a larger investment from the Federal Transit Administration, has shown commitment to secure an extension of the general excise tax surcharge. Assuming state lawmakers will approve that extension, it seems the most realistic option for bulk financing of the rail’s final phase.
For his part, Djou has cobbled together a financing strategy that seems dubious. He has pledged to make another plea to the FTA, perhaps aided by influential allies on the U.S. House transportation committee, contacts he made during his brief tenure in Congress.
But the prospects of Congress members bending the will of the FTA seem dim. Djou has strenuously opposed any new taxation for rail. Given that reticence, it’s hard to imagine FTA officials feeling confident giving Honolulu a larger share of federal dollars.
His other proposed revenue sources primarily include impact fees from developers building around the rail stations. But that kind of revenue will be hard to secure before the rail alignment itself has its financing lined up.
Some of Djou’s criticisms hit their target. For example, he has charged that Caldwell’s homelessness strategy would work better if nonprofit and faith-based organizations were given freer rein.
In fact, the Caldwell administration could do a better job easing the path for the nonprofits, and another misstep Djou raised — federal block-grant mismanagement — must be corrected.
Still, Djou’s basic theory that downsizing government would solve these problems is ill-founded. He expresses too much faith that unleashing the power of the private sector will fuel the transit-oriented development Honolulu needs.
There is incentive to develop along the rail line, but achieving the growth that is needed — primarily the delivery of more affordable housing units — will take city guidance.
If he is re-elected, as the Honolulu Star-Advertiser recommends, Caldwell will need to show more resolve than he has to increase the yield of affordable housing along the rail line.
There is further room for improvement here. A second Caldwell term should operate with greater transparency and give more deference to matters of ethics.
Despite the persistence of problems, the current administration has shown a willingness to dig into basic city concerns. Caldwell has used a range of strategies in his homelessness initiatives, from “compassionate disruption” to “Housing First” and the auxiliary dwelling unit program to add rentals. The roads and sewers are getting fixed.
Increasing the pace of progress is essential, but the mayor is moving in the right direction.
