A special meeting of the Honolulu City Council Budget Committee is being held this morning to consider several budget bills, including the mayor’s capital improvements budget (Bill 16), where the first billion (with a B) dollars to fund the initial transit contracts appear.
It’s important to keep in mind that these contracts, if not amended, (a) will lock the city into a particular type of train based on the mayor’s own specifications, and (b) will not be eligible for any federal reimbursement because the funds are being committed before federal approvals are obtained.
It’s hard to tell at this point whether the American Institute of Architects’ growing call for changes to the design that would make the rail system more cost effective, easier to complete, and more user and community friendly, are gaining enough political traction to make a difference.
I hope so, but some people say the key decisions have already been made.
Not so, or, more properly, at least they haven’t been made on the up & up.
In January, 2007, the council declared a “locally preferred alternative” which would run on a “fixed guideway”.
No problem. That’s what AIA wants.
And the bill establishing the “locally preferred alternative” explicitly said that the choice of specific technology still had to be made. Further, the council at that time recognized that the administration was (or was at risk of) manipulating the specifications of the system. As a result, the bill required that design specifications receive the council’s prior approval before being adopted.
Although the provision for prior review was later challenged (and changed) on other grounds, the council’s intent was clear.
And, later in 2007, when the city laid out the scope of its environmental impact study, it said clearly that the technology had not yet been selected and that comments on that technology choice should be delayed until the EIS was completed.
And when the mayor’s technology selection panel met and made a choice, it recommended “steel wheel on steel rail”. Good. The AIA has no problem with that recommendation, as the technology it supports falls within that category.
Despite all that, Mayor Mufi is now telling us that the environmental impact study was all shibai, that it was never intended to really study alternatives, and that the decisions have all been made and those with environmental concerns should just get lost and get out of the way and let his pet design roll.
All the while, of course, using photos and video of the systems favored by the AIA to sell the public on the idea of transit, even though those depictions are of a type of transit technology the mayor is trying to prevent from being adopted here.
Isn’t politics something else?
I noticed that there have been two last minute changes in the fast-track schedule for the two contracts currently out for bids. The first change was announced last Wednesday, then on Friday that was thrown out and replaced with another schedule. There’s obviously a story behind these changes, but I don’t know what it is or whose ox is gored in the process.
Newspaper news of the day. Arizona’s attorney general filed suit in federal district court on Friday in an attempt to force continued publication of the Tucson Citizen.
Goddard said that Gannett Corp., which has owned the Citizen since 1976, rejected offers to buy the afternoon paper to keep it operating in competition with the Star. More to the point, he contends that Gannett and Lee Enterprises Corp., the Star’s parent, set up the closure so that no one will be competing with the Star — and Gannett will continue to benefit financially from that lack of competition. “We’re talking about an agreement between two media entities to extinguish one of them, to their mutual profit,” Goddard told Capitol Media Services. “I’m just not satisfied that the public interest in being served here.”
Here’s some value added: A copy of the complaint filed on Friday, along with the memorandum of law supporting issuance of a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.
Update: I missed the Gannett Blog’s post on Friday concerning the situation in Tucson, which reported that the Tucson Citizen will continue in an online-only format.
One certainly hopes the FBI has opened a file on “The Great Train Robbery”. Good intentions doesn’t prevent criminal intent in the actions of the officials. This looks to be just the most recent large public graft trough that began what with the Ala Wai and has been present in every major [and probably minor] public “improvement” since. Or have I missed a project that came in graft-free? Should we call this the “Land Super Ferry”? Keep an eye on this one young FBI agents everywhere. Hawaii is a place to make “your bones.” Corrupt and none-too-bright about it. Not Ivy League bright, that is.