Get HART, DTS on board

Many exasperating sayings leap to mind, over the rail project’s latest troubles as cited in the federal monitor’s new monthly report.

Left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Tripping over one’s own two feet.

Today’s core snafu is over the slow utilities relocation work along the busy Dillingham Boulevard corridor, exacerbated by dysfunction between the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) and the city Department for Transportation Services (DTS). HART needs DTS to sign off on a new traffic management plan to restrict area traffic to just two lanes, before DTS will issue permits for day and night construction to accelerate the utilities work.

HART had hoped that job — under a $400 million contract to Nan Inc. for mostly night work — would be about 30% done by now, but it’s been closer to only 7%. Now HART is looking at a second contractor to help speed the work, likely at additional cost.

Traffic-management talks have been ongoing for months, on details such as off-duty police to direct traffic, and guaranteed 24/7 access to business and residential properties. It’s complicated, to be sure, but at this point for the overdue rail, everyone involved should be pulling out all the stops, working together 24/7, to get this done.

That sense of urgency should be infusing all — from the mayor, to DTS to HART.

After all, delays on the Dillingham utilities job have, in turn, seriously delayed the touted P3 (public- private partnership) contract to build the last 4.1 miles of rail: the City Center segment. That contract has been postponed four times: Initially scheduled to be awarded last September, it now is scheduled for May 15. Of course, that’s only if the two city agencies — DTS and HART — can quickly resolve things, which they should have done a while back.

Fluoride bill fail baffling

Crediting community water fluoridation for a large drop in cavities, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks it among the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century, alongside vaccination and other feats.

Given this dental health success story, which dates back to the mid-1940s, Hawaii’s resistance to adding fluoride to drinking water is baffling, and raises social justice issues.

While fluoride occurs naturally in water, its presence in groundwater is usually not strong enough to prevent tooth decay. It’s disheartening that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week rejected Senate Bill 2997, which would add fluoride to certain public water systems for the sake of much-needed health gains.

Hawaii ranks 50th among states for population percentage on fluoridated public water systems, with the treated water used only on military properties. Nationwide, three-quarters of the population gets fluoridated tap water.

“Hawaii Smiles 2015,” a survey through which the state Health Department compared data with other states, found that 7 out of 10 third-graders here are affected by tooth decay. The national average is 52%. Further, particularly hard hit are low-income families, whose children need urgent dental care at a rate five times higher than that for higher-income peers.

Among the concerns cited by the bill’s opponents were worries about chemicals diminishing water purity. Supporters, meanwhile, correctly countered that state’s drinking water already has additional chlorine, which is chemically similar to fluoride, to reduce exposure to water-borne illnesses.

Term limits for prosecutor

Come November, Oahu voters will have the chance to make an overdue change to unlimited terms for Honolulu’s elected prosecuting attorney. On the general election ballot will be this question: “Shall the Revised City Charter be amended to establish for the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu a term limit of two consecutive full four-year terms, the same term limit as is applicable to the Mayor and Councilmembers of the City and County of Honolulu?”

The answer should be a resounding “yes” — one that made sense even before the recent scandals of Katherine Kealoha, a former deputy city prosecutor, tainted the Prosecutor’s Office, and now, her one-time boss, Keith Kaneshiro. Kaneshiro has been on paid administrative leave since last March, after being pressured to step down when he received a criminal investigation target letter from federal law enforcement. Kaneshiro has been in office since 2010 and previously, 1989-1996.

It’s necessary to have churn in powerful positions — especially in low-voter-turnout Hawaii, where name recognition, not necessarily talent, can keep an incumbent in power longer than he or she deserves.

Voters in 2016 rejected term limits for the city prosecutor, but that charter question was flawed. It was an all-or-nothing vote that would’ve set a three-term limit for the prosecutor, as well as for Honolulu’s mayor and City Council members. The mayor and Council already have two-term limits, which is just about right.