Isle leaders intently keep blind eye on rail’s budget

Mayor Kirk Caldwell, the City Council, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and the state Legislature have made a culture of looking the other way when it comes to the financial and managerial lapses that have doubled the cost of Oahu rail to $10 billion and delayed its opening by six years.

In a rare display of conscience last year, HART directors agreed to a $250,000 forensic audit to determine what went wrong, where the money went and how to get on track.

The scruples didn’t last long; directors have now quashed the audit, dismissing a chance to learn from mistakes as a waste of money.

The reversal was led by Caldwell’s former Managing Director Ember Shinn, whom he recently put on HART’s board as an apparent political enforcer, and his Transportation Director Wes Frysztacki.

Said Shinn, “It’s not my intent to muck around in the past and try to figure out what we did wrong.”

The muck would contain many traces of Caldwell, who was elected mayor in 2012 on a failed promise to “build rail better” after serving from 2008 to 2010 as former Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s self-described “primary point person” on rail.

HART’s alternate plan to restore public confidence: add two more public relations staffers to double down on selling the false narrative that all is peachy.

HART’s backtracking came after House and Senate leaders committed in a letter to the Federal Transit Administration to hold a special session next month to cover rail’s $3 billion deficit.

Legislators refused to extend the half-cent rail excise tax during their regular session, repeatedly saying they didn’t trust Caldwell, HART or their numbers.

You’d think such concerns would have prompted lawmakers to demand an independent audit as a starting point for discussions about more money.

But now it seems only a question of whether the bailout will come from the excise tax or the hotel room tax.

“We’ve got to get to the point where we agree on more than half or a substantial amount of facts,” said Senate Ways and Means Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz.

Operating on half the facts got us in this mess.

The City Council turned its own blind eye to facts while approving $350 million in taxpayer-backed bonds to cover cost overruns that have HART shelling out money faster than excise tax revenues are coming in.

The Council voted 6-3 to put the city’s full faith and credit on the line despite having little idea of how many more bond issues will be needed or how they’ll affect the city’s credit rating and ability to fund other priorities.

Rail Chief Financial Officer Robert Yu said, “I’m not even sure I want to say a number.”

See no evil, say no evil and let the grandkids pay for it.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.