Lori Kahikina’s future as the CEO and executive director of the city’s rail project — and the future of the project itself — has been thrown into doubt with six months left on her contract and relations continuing to break down between her and the chair of the board that oversees the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.
Kahikina won praise from Mayor Rick Blangiardi and other Hawaii officials for her role in finally getting the rail system running last year and, along the way, restoring relations with federal transit officials who had lost faith in Honolulu’s rail system and had withheld long-overdue and badly needed federal funding.
But tensions between Kahikina and the 12-member HART board — specifically Chairperson Colleen Hanabusa — began soon after Blangiardi appointed Hanabusa to the unpaid, volunteer board in 2021.
“The tone of the meetings is very accusatory, condescending and it’s not just to me. It’s toward my staff, as well,” Kahikina told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in HART’s downtown offices last week. “The message seems pretty clear to me that I’m not wanted. I get the sense that they don’t want me to stay beyond the end of my contract this year.”
The situation has devolved to the point that Kahikina said she feels “bullied” but has not filed a complaint with the city despite the urging of some HART employees.
“I don’t know what would actually happen if I filed anything,” Kahikina said.
Hanabusa told the Star-Advertiser that she did not feel comfortable speaking about Kahikina out of the context of an official board meeting and because it is a “personnel matter.”
“I don’t feel it’s proper to say anything at this juncture,” Hanabusa said.
Asked if she would be interested in becoming HART CEO, Hanabusa wrote in a text, “No, definitely not.”
Before Hanabusa joined the HART board in July 2021, Kahikina became HART’s interim CEO and executive director in January 2021 and began cutting redundant staff and contractors to get the stalled project under financial control.
In March 2022, after she was named permanent CEO and executive director, Kahikina turned down a bonus of $25,000, telling the Star-Advertiser at the time that HART needed to save every penny.
With a salary of $275,000, Kahikina earns less than some of her predecessors, all men, including some who were the highest paid city employees despite the project’s delays and cost overruns.
Then, in June 2023, Kahikina received a performance evaluation — on the eve of the opening of the rail system — based on a numerical score that Kahikina considered the equivalent to a grade of a C minus.
The low score made Kahikina ineligible for a bonus of as much as $55,000, which she told the Star-Advertiser at the time she would have declined anyway.
A more recent performance evaluation on Feb. 27 offered no scoring and only comments that took up just over a page.
The evaluation included several criticisms that Kahikina pushed back against in her response in April, notably about her communication with the HART board.
Kahikina’s “Interactions with the Board, and collaboration with Board priorities and Charter obligations, have raised concerns,” according to her evaluation.
In response, Kahikina wrote: “Again, no specifics regarding these concerns have been shared with me. Will you provide specific information to me regarding the concerns over my collaboration with Board priorities and Charter obligations? After last year’s evaluation, I tried very hard to improve in my collaboration with the Board. But when I reached out, I often did not receive responses to my messages.”
The latest evaluation made it clear that the sentiments were not universal, saying that “Board members’ ratings varied greatly.”
Kahikina’s contract expires on Dec. 31.
On Friday, the board’s Human Resources Committee has two related items on its agenda: a discussion of Kahikina’s contract; and an item described only as “Referral of Recent Media Reports Regarding Board Member Conduct for Investigation/Action,” which may be related to board member Natalie Iwasa’s recent appearance before the City Council in which she described Kahikina’s situation at HART as a “corrosive environment.”
There are several possibilities about what could happen between now and the end of the year, including some form of action by Blangiardi — who appointed Hanabusa to a five-year term that expires in July 2026 — or a vote by the board to remove Hanabusa as chair.
A potential compromise of a one-year contract extension for Kahikina would be unacceptable to Kahikina, who said she would consider it “insulting” given her role in turning around the project. She wants a three-year contract, just like her predecessors.
Kahikina wrote in response to her latest evaluation, “Related to the opening of the system, Senator (Brian) Schatz recently stated ‘this project faced multiple near-death experiences over many, many years.’ Mayor Blangiardi has commented many times that the rail project was one of the biggest problem areas at the City at the time of his election and that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) had lost all confidence in the project leadership that was in place before my arrival at HART. Moreover, federal funding associated with the project’s Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) for the project had been cut off by the FTA since 2017. … Overcoming the problems of the past and achieving the milestone of opening the system and negotiating a revised FFGA, given the FTA’s disposition about the project under prior managers was a huge feat in 2023 and was an accomplishment that brought pride to the entire HART team.”
Asked if she would accept a three-year contract, if it’s offered, and stay if Hanabusa remained on the HART board — let alone as chair — Kahikina said, “I’d have to think about that.”
Years of tensions largely went unnoticed by the public until Iwasa brought the situation before the City Council during a HART budget update.
Iwasa spoke to the Star-Advertiser but emphasized that she was not speaking on behalf of the HART board.
Kahikina, Iwasa said, has been “trying to do the right thing, especially given the mess that she was handed when she first came on board. I’ve gotten phone calls asking, ‘How can we support Lori? How can I help Lori?’ There seems to be a lot of support out there from those who know her.”
The uncertainty over who will lead HART next has implications for contractors who might bid on the last section of rail “guideway” heading into Kakaako, Iwasa said.
Bids are due in July but some firms may be reluctant “because relationships are important” and Kahikina has worked hard to rebuild them, Iwasa said.
As planned, the rail route would run 18.75 miles through 19 stations from East Kapolei to its final destination in Kakaako at a cost of $9.8 billion.
Rick Keene, HART’s deputy executive director and chief operating officer, said Kahikina’s situation with the board has hurt morale at a time when employees have become proud to work at HART.
Some employees now may look for other jobs or leave Hawaii for other opportunities in an industry that badly needs highly skilled workers, Keene said.
“It’s impacting many more people than just Lori,” he said. “The rumor mill is active and the uncertainty of Lori’s tenure here is a huge concern and that is having impact on morale. A lot of people are in limbo.”
Iwasa said that if Kahikina leaves at the end of the year, she wonders who would want the job of reporting to the HART board, let alone finding someone who has more experience and local connections than Kahikina.
Kahikina, 53, graduated from Kamehameha Schools, the University of Hawaii with a degree in mechanical engineering and spent 12 years at the city’s Department of Environmental Services, including as the department’s director.
“Is anyone else going to be able to gain the trust of employees and contractors and other vendors,” Iwasa asked. “Because that is so important. … You have to understand the culture here.”
“I really wish the mayor would step forward and do something,” Iwasa said.
In a statement, Blangiardi’s office said: “The Mayor and Managing Director expect the HART leadership and HART Board to conduct themselves professionally at all times and put the project ahead of personal differences. We also believe this matter needs to be resolved in HART and we are taking steps to facilitate a resolution of differences.”
Former Mayor Kirk Caldwell worked with Kahikina for eight years during his two terms as mayor and is writing a book on the history of the rail project.
He said he admired Kahikina’s integrity and principles and called her “absolutely the right person to be there” leading HART and, especially, overseeing the next phase of complicated construction through the busy Dillingham corridor and into Kakaako.
“There was a lot of turmoil at HART for much of the eight years I was mayor,” Caldwell said. “That all changed when Lori came on board. … So it’s disappointing and somewhat sad to see what’s happening with Lori.”
HART board member Ed Sniffen, director of the state Department of Transportation, has worked with Kahikina for years going back to Sniffen’s earlier days at DOT while Kahikina was with the city.
He characterized the current relationship between Kahikina and the HART board as “definitely strained” and out in the open during board meetings.
Sniffen called Kahikina “one of the most productive E.D.s (executive directors) that I’ve seen in this role.”
Kahikina has opened HART’s books and been transparent and candid with the public and the media, he said.
“Lori has been excellent in the role,” Sniffen said.
So, Sniffen said, conversations need to happen soon to resolve the current situation for a variety of reasons, including assuring the public and federal officials of stable leadership at HART.
Whether Kahikina stays beyond the end of the year, he said, “either way it behooves all of us to move forward very quickly. … It’s fair to Lori. It’s fair to the board.”
