Six of the 12 board members who oversee the city’s rail project have not signed mandated confidentiality agreements but only one has been excluded from private board discussions, including again on Friday.

Natalie Iwasa, a member of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s board of directors, filed a public records request under the state’s Uniform Information Practices Act asking which board members had signed confidentiality agreements.

Iwasa and board members Anthony Aalto, Kika Bukoski, Lynn McCrory, Roger Morton and Dean Uchida have not, Iwasa told board Chair Colleen Hanabusa during Friday’s meeting.

“So I would respectively ask that I be allowed into the executive sessions for today and hopefully this issue will be cleared up soon,” Iwasa said.

Hanabusa still blocked Iwasa from participating in Friday’s closed-door executive sessions.

In November, Hanabusa required confidentiality agreements to be signed by Iwasa and three other board members appointed by either state Senate President Ron Kouchi or House Speaker Scott Saiki. The other board members were appointed by city officials.

Hanabusa on Friday told Iwasa that she is “not a chartered designated member, and your oath of office — if anything — would be dictated by the state.”

When she was originally asked to sign the confidentiality agreement, Iwasa, a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner, said she was told that refusing comes at the risk of criminal penalties.

At Saiki’s request for an opinion, Deputy Attorney General Robyn B. Chun previously wrote that, “All members of the HART Board, irrespective of appointing authority, are therefore obligated to keep confidential any confidential information obtained as members of the HART board and excluding any board members from portions of meetings until they sign a confidentiality agreement is unreasonable and cannot be justified.”

The city’s Office of Corporation Counsel continues to disagree and the dispute remained unresolved Friday, Deputy Corporation Counsel Daniel Gluck told Hanabusa.

“Until I hear to the contrary from our attorneys,” Hanabusa told Iwasa, “we’re going to hold to the position.”

After coming out of its first executive session of the day, Aalto said: “I’m just wondering if we’re any closer to resolving the situation. … I feel that Natalie Iwasa’s handled this situation — which is extremely awkward, not to say embarrassing — with enormous grace. But it can’t go on forever. How close are we to resolving this issue? … This has been going on a long time. Natalie’s a very valuable member of this board, and it’s just very awkward that she has to be excluded every time.”

Hanabusa said she would put the issue up for discussion at the May meeting of the HART board.