On Politics: Hawaii’s never-ending quest for good leaders to overcome fiascos, such as rail and stadium

Today’s question: What is a six-letter word ending in a double vowel that describes a place that is also the site of multiple dilemmas?

Yes, you got it! Hawaii.

You can pick whether it is one big dilemma or a series of demi-dilemmas lining up to sock it to our island state.

The first is a new crisis. Last week, the state Stadium Authority announced that football and any new events would not be held in Aloha Stadium, built in 1974 by former Gov. John A. Burns. The authority announced that it was just too dangerous to allow the public into the rusting structure.

“Aloha Stadium has been expending its reserves to maintain operations since COVID-19 restrictions began. Unfortunately, we have reached a stage where we can no longer afford to continue these expenditures,” said Ross Yamasaki, chairman of the Stadium Authority, in a news release.

Whether Hawaii has enough money to build a new stadium where the University of Hawaii and scores of high school teams can play football is unknown. But what is known is how much time is left on the maintenance clock; the answer is none.

Yamasaki said a lack of funds led to the stadium closure while several news reports also cited sources saying the lack of stadium maintenance led to the closure.

To the rescue are plans slowly moving along with three bidders proposing a new, smaller facility. First a developer must be selected, a financial plan approved, designs drafted and OK’d, and the construction started and then finished — all in three years.

University of Hawaii President David Lassner said last week: “The project isn’t really out of the starting gate yet, so this is of great concern to us.”

Readers should remember this is Honolulu, not Hong Kong. Speed and efficiency are not on the Hawaii bureaucracy’s tool belt.

Dilemma No. 2 is that hardy perennial: Honolulu’s overbudget, underperforming rail project. It seems that every time the transit authority meets, the budget rises and and the time to completion expands. The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is meeting as I write this, so there is an expectation that the situation will grow more dire.

What is already known is that the last estimate for the project was $10 billion, with a 2028 completion date. Just like the stadium project, rail had a public-private project deal with a private entity building the project, presumably free of state bureaucratic regulations. This fall, rail dropped that public- private partnership idea, but that is still the plan moving forward for stadium construction.

Rail, however, appears to be built mostly on stumbling blocks. The biggest is, as it has always been, Dillingham Boulevard. Underneath it flows the major water line for Honolulu’s urban core. Above it runs one of the principal power line routes into downtown. Traffic on Dillingham is a 24-hour-a-day deal. It is lined with privately owned small businesses that must move before anybody starts putting in rail pillars. Last week rail officials said they were at least a year away from buying all of the property or easements to deal with utility lines. Meaning that contractors are a year away from putting an X on the map and saying “Dig here.”

So for Hawaii’s dilemmas, the question is not so much who screwed up; there is always time to find someone to blame. The question is finding capable leaders to get us out of these fiascos.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.