As the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation suffers the loss of key personnel, an embattled leader’s current work contract that might not be renewed and long-standing employee vacancies, one rail official posed a question about the future of the nearly $10 billion Skyline project.
“Are you confident that we have a strong enough team to manage the City Center Guideway and Stations contracts once that’s (approved)?” asked board member Anthony Aalto during HART’s board of directors meeting Friday.
Aalto’s question to HART Executive Director and CEO Lori Kahikina pertained to the design and construction of the rail line’s third and final leg — from Kalihi to Civic Center in Kakaako by 2031 — which HART says is scheduled to receive final builder bids July 23.
In response, Kahikina, who’s come under fire in recent weeks from some on the board over her leadership and voiced concerns of her own about her future there as her $275,000 executive contract with HART expires Dec. 31, initially said she was “very confident in our team.”
But based in part on job vacancies at the agency, Kahikina later clarified that existing rail staffers were “stretched thin.”
“So I don’t think it’s sustainable to be working at this level through CCGS,” Kahikina said, adding that new staff and “additional consultants to take the burden off the shoulders of those working at a very high pace” is planned.
At Friday’s meeting, which dealt partly with critical position recruitment, HART Human Resources Specialist Sandy Aguilar said the agency now has 38 employee positions filled. As of January the city authorized 135 positions at the rail agency, but HART’s administration has requested 37 be deleted, leaving 98 positions.
She also noted that the agency “currently has 14 open positions.”
“Of these 14 positions, we have filled one (position),” said Aguilar of a new fiscal analyst position. “It will be effective Monday, May 20.”
“In addition, we have received three acknowledged tentative offers, and we have received a start date for these three positions; it’s scheduled on July 1 or sooner, depending on how quickly we can process (them),” she added.
Those posts include a data processing systems analyst, a planner and a records management analyst position — the last deemed “one of the critical, or top-priority, positions that we are filling,” Aguilar said.
“If we fill these positions, that will leave us with 10 open positions,” she said.
Besides vacancies, HART’s executive management team of late has experienced unexpected departures.
In early April, HART Project Director Nate Meddings abruptly resigned from his three-year post. HART said his departure was family-related.
Kahikina also noted the pending retirement of Deputy Executive Director Rick Keene by the end of the year.
At the meeting, board member Michele Chun Brunngraber asked about Keene’s potential replacement, a qualified person she believed was lined up for the key job.
“You made it sound like, ‘Oh, I had a candidate,’” Brunngraber told Kahikina.
Kahikina replied, “When Rick said, ‘I really need to retire,’ I did reach out to a specific person that I thought would be good … and I was pretty honest about my situation, and he said that he’s not going to come over if I’m not here, so I just stopped talking to him.”
“So there’s no succession plan for that right now?” Brunngraber asked.
“There’s a good candidate if I’m staying,” replied Kahikina, “but if I’m not, then I’m not here.”
“Regardless, based on the feedback that you gave them, they said that they’re not willing to make a decision, so you don’t have a backup to that?” Brunngraber asked.
Kahikina said, “That is correct.”
Later, board member Robert Yu confirmed with HART staffers that the board itself does not hire the deputy executive director.
For the upcoming 2025 fiscal year, which begins July 1, HART says its proposed operating budget totals over $138.3 million, a 27% increase over its current $109.2 million budget. HART’s proposed capital budget for next fiscal year — which includes the CCGS project — totals $574 million, a nearly 1% increase over the current $569 million capital budget.
The Honolulu City Council is expected to approve HART’s budgets by June, according to Council staff.
Correction: HART has 38 filled positions, not 98 as reported in an earlier version of this story. As of January, the city had authorized 135 positions at the rail agency, but HART’s administration has requested that 37 be deleted, leaving 98 positions.
