A runaway train
January 31st, 2008 by David ShapiroIt’s encouraging that the city has attracted a dozen bidders offering a variety of technologies to build Honolulu’s $5 billion transit system from Kapolei to town, but the rush to make a decision and the secrecy of the deliberations are alarming.
The City Council last week authorized a panel of mostly outside experts to choose the technology from proposed systems that include steel rail, rubber tires, monorail and levitation. The Hannemann administration says the panel will meet in secret because it will be dealing with proprietary information.
Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz objects to the secrecy and has asked the state Office of Information Practices for a ruling, but it’s doubtful that a resolution will occur before the panel is scheduled to make its decision by the end of February.
With legislators threatening to suspend the half-cent excise tax to pay for transit if the city doesn’t choose the technology by June, it’s questionable how much meaningful public participation will be possible when the matter moves from the panel of experts to the council for final action.
Citizens wishing to provide input apparently won’t have access to all of the information considered by the experts in secret — or much time to process whatever information is released to justify the pivotal decision on technology.
“I don’t think that’s democracy,” said Dela Cruz.
The rushed decision-making and the secrecy are unnecessary and damaging to the credibility of Hawai’i’s most expensive public works project ever.
With all the community controversy and mixed opinion surrounding transit, you’d think the administration and council would want to maximize public participation and buy-in instead of constantly leaving the impression that transit decisions are being railroaded to a predetermined outcome.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:22 am
At the expense of repeating, it SHOULD be a no brainer that both the city council and the admin be fully open about this and disclose everyting.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:31 am
Well said, Dave.
Sure looks like the City is in an awful hurry to make secret billion dollar deals with giant companies behind closed doors.
Now that’s scary.
January 31st, 2008 at 6:44 am
This project will be Muffi’s and those City Councilman who support legacy of and example of narrow sighted management. Haven’t they heard that the U.S. Government is in debt (trillions) after the many years of Republican control and the Bush/ Cheney War on Iraq? There is no money for this stupid project. Limit the building and the number of cars allowed on this Island. Shouldn’t the citizens/taxpayers expect the same fiscial responsibility of elected officials as we would of ourselves when we have debt???
January 31st, 2008 at 6:47 am
An objective body needs to monitor the procurement process during the onset of awarding bids, NOT after the fact - to offset wasted money and time. Mufi is on a strict time table, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind!
January 31st, 2008 at 7:02 am
I have to respectfully disagree. If I need surgery, I don’t call in a bunch of lawyers to decide on the best course of treatment. Too often these days the voices of real experts are drowned out by ill-informed individuals or groups who seek only to further an agenda or enhance their individual power. Experts in earth science have been telling the rest of us about the problem of global warming since the mid 80’s. It took 25 years for the political class to understand. The public should be involved in deciding whether or not to have a transit system, how to pay for it, and where it should go - but let the experts choose the best technology and deliver a report telling us - the uninformed - why they made their recommendation. Oh yeah - and in case you forgot - the US constitutional convention of 1787 was held in complete secrecy. Those old-time dudes seemed to have come up with a pretty good product without the help of media and special interest pressure.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:55 am
I have to agree with Roy. I think this project is a terrible idea and colossal waste of money, but if we are going to be forced into it, we need to make sure it’s done right. And that means letting real experts make a real, apolitical, technical/operational decision. The moment you make their meetings public is the moment you let politics into the room.
The state of our City’s democracy will be fine if the following City Council meetings - about whether or not to follow this coming recommendation, or whether to scrap the whole project - are held in public.
If the “expert panel” is indeed comprised of experts in the field, it’s presumptuous to think the average citizen (myself included) will have any ability to second-guess their decision, from a technical/operational standpoint. If the concern is how this will affect our quality of life - that’s a decision for the City Council.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:18 am
Since the panel of experts is not from Hawaii and is probably not intimately familiar with our unique circumstances, the C&C will no doubt provide the panel with some very specific information, constraints and forecasts to help in making the technology decision.
One wonders if that information will be made public. It seems reasonable that the taxpayer should be able to review the fundamental assumptions used by the experts and then relate that to the ultimate recommendation.
The problem with secrecy is that once it starts it becomes addictive to persons and committees who would rather avoid the rough and tumble of public debate. Expect objection? Call a secret meeting. Too controversial? Call a secret meeting. The famous saying applies: “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”
January 31st, 2008 at 8:24 am
“In a hurry to make a decision”–are you kidding, Dave. We’ve been screwing around with this for 30 YEARS!
January 31st, 2008 at 8:45 am
I personally think that rail transit is a good idea. However, ever since I was in elementary school I was always nervous when people close the doors and talk. These deliberations need to be public.
January 31st, 2008 at 9:53 am
They’re right, it’s not democracy; it’s technocracy — or rule by the “experts.”
Instead of the consumer (citizen) being the ultimate judge of what he wants, the experts demand the citizens cede their rights to them — because they know better and what is best for everybody else. It is a regression in freedom, liberty and responsibility — back to the eventual restoration to full autocracy, and the divine right of kings, because they “say it is so.”
We see it most familiarly in the government monopolies (bureaucracies) in which the teachers insist nobody is allowed to learn anything unless they enroll in their institutions and receive their certifications. More recently, fledgling professional trade groups would have us believe nobody should be allowed to move or breathe without their personal instruction in how they ought to do it right.
So while initially, it is a wonderful idea to have credible expertise, it soon degrades into the familiar pattern of serving their own self -(professional) interests rather than the public’s.
Bad laws and bad government, are a bad lawyers ‘“paradise.”
Welcome to Hawaii.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:50 am
If former Governor John Waihee does not get the AD’s position at UH, I think he should be considered for the position of CZAR of the Transportation Authority which will oversee the new rail program.
He is loved and revered by the people, Keiki O kamaaina, has the administration skills needed, look what he did for the State during his 8 years, and he needs a position.
This would solve so much for all of us in Hawaii, especially the future tax payers of the next generation. He also has a strong network of people to bring into the organization to ensure the efficient, profitable and cost effective operation of the authority.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:52 am
Lucky we live Hawai`i
January 31st, 2008 at 11:08 am
Lau Pan has a gentle sense of irony.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I have a question to which I can’t seem to get a straight answer:
Is there any rule, law, edict to prevent the rail fund from being raided?
Simple, straightforward enough, no?
January 31st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
dela cruz has been anti-mufi from the very start and is willing to do anything to derail the rail. His obsession is so intense that he is totally ineffective as a council member.
I don’t see why the citizens need to have input as to the technology. The decision has been made for a fixed-guideway system. The council, when they vote on the recommendations, can hold a meeting and have citizentry input then. But, citizens do not have the expertise to know how a system is best technologically. Their input will be based largely on passion, not on reason. If the council wanted to have input by the citizen, why don’t they let them vote on a system and choose the one with the most votes. This would be a stupid idea for the reasons stated previously.
Also, the fact that the council will select the final system is stupid. None of the council members are expert in this area, many of them are bumbling idiots like kobayashi, marshall, djou, tam and dela cruz.
Like one of the prior posts, would you like a lay-person determine how your illness should be treated? The council is just power hungry, but stupid too.
January 31st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Come on folks, lets think this through just a little bit, shall we?
Mufi is not stupid.
The “expert panel” is Mufi’s attempt to put more pressure on the council to put rail in Honolulu.
He knows he doesn’t have enough council votes for rail, so instead he appoints a panel of rail-lovers as “experts” to choose the “technology”, then placing even more pressure on the council to abide by the experts.
If this was such a great idea, why wasn’t it part of the process from the get-go? Because Mufi wasn’t planning on this much resistance.
The need for “secrecy” is a pile of bull. Why not record their meetings and play them on Olelo? Why not provide audio recordings of their conference calls?
If there are some “vendor confidentiality” issues, those sections could easily be bleeped out of the recordings.
If Mufi really wanted experts, he would have brought them in right from the start and asked them on how to best solve the congestion problem.
Instead, he decided that Rail was the solution, then directed the consultants to produce a “study” which, surprise surprise, shows Rail as the best solution, and now brings in “experts” of which all but one are rail fanatics, to choose, surprise, Rail.
Folks, here we have a city that can’t even install timed traffic lights yet is doing a bunch of back room deals to spend billions on a system that their own research shows will not reduce congestion
Sounds like business as usual to me.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:12 am
First of all, nothing’s being rushed. City council chose the train in 2006…This is 2008…State senators, in fact, fear it’s moving too slowly and have put out a “threat” to withhold funding if it doesn’t move.
Secondly, the only reason there’s an expert panel is because dela cruz and his cohorts want to meddle where they don’t belong. They’re like a bunch of sixth graders saying if we can’t play then nobody can play. They should have just accepted their role as choosing the LPA, and leaving everything else to admin…they don’t say what kind of technology the city fleet of cars and other vehicles should be.
The city’s own researcdh shows that there’ll be less congestion with a train than wihtout, and less congestion with a train than managed tollways and all that other shibai. I for one am grateful that several experts will decide in a relatively short time, minus all the political agendas, on the best technology for the train. There’s not really that much resistance…just a lot of talk
February 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
We should have let experts pick the route too. That way we wouldn’t be looking at a retarded one that goes past Romey Cachola’s house instead of the airport.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:20 am
just follow the money… and these are great times to be labor unions…especially the construction unions…and the Jones Act gov’t. protected steam-ship companies that will have to be used to ship all construction materials here from the main-land….and the local legislators that will get their much needed donations from all of the above…follow the money…