When the Legislature earlier this year grudgingly approved a $2.4 billion bailout package for Honolulu’s wildly over-budget rail transit project, it demanded greater oversight — not surprising for a $5 billion project headed toward $10 billion.
For one, the state comptroller now will review construction invoices before payment. And this week, the Legislature added four non-voting members to the project’s governing board — the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation — to keep an eye on things. Predictably, the four are experts in finance.
Senate President Ron Kouchi chose two former state budget directors: Wesley Machida and Kalbert Young. House Speaker Scott Saiki chose Tobias “Toby” Martyn, the vice president of investments at Stifel and previously a senior executive vice president at Bank of Hawaii; and Kamani Kuala‘au, a senior vice president at the asset-management firm Atalanta Sosnoff Capital and chairman of the King Lunalilo Trust Estate.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell worries that it will be more difficult to maintain a quorum of voting members on the expanded, 14-member board. Well, maybe. In the meantime, the long-suffering public should expect more — and more accurate — information about the train, and what it’s costing us.
Toddler’s death demands probe
The heart-wrenching photo of little Ocean Wright, 2, lying unconsciousness in a hospital bed all bandaged up, with tubes sustaining her, must spur demand for quick answers on what happened and swift justice.
The girl died from her injuries on Sept. 25, more than a month after a 911 call on the night of Aug. 18 brought Honolulu Emergency Medical Services to the Schofield Barracks home of her father, Sgt. Christian Whiting. The toddler was away from her mother, who lives in Las Vegas, staying for the summer with Whiting and his wife, Tihani. Ocean was hospitalized for a scalding water burn, her mother said.
Honolulu police started investigating the toddler’s case as a possible first-degree assault, but after she died, it was reclassified as an unattended death pending an autopsy. No arrests have been made — yet.
This heinous death of a child harmed on a Hawaii military base recalls the tragedy of 5-year-old Talia Williams, who in 2005 died after months of abuse by her father, a Schofield soldier, and her stepmother. Despite reports to military officers, state child protection services were never contacted. That case would spur creation of the federal “Talia’s law,” which requires the military to report any child abuse on base to civilian authorities, in hopes of better protection.
In Ocean’s case, the military said Hawaii’s Child Welfare Services was notified of her injuries the same night of the 911 call. More investigation is needed to determine what occurred at the Whiting home that night, and leading up to it. For now, Ocean’s horrific death, like Talia’s before her, must be reminders: When it comes to domestic abuse — whether in the military or general community — if you see or suspect something, say something.
Reopen secure Kakaako parks
For the general public, it’s good news: On Monday, the state is slated to re-open some of the Kakaako parks closed three weeks ago, due to damage done by homeless squatters.
Kewalo Basin Park, the two Gateway parks and the Point Panic area of Kakaako Waterfront Park will once again be accessible to all, which surely will delight regulars who’ve had to devise workarounds. Unfortunately, much of Kakaako Waterfront Park will remain closed indefinitely due to health and safety issues. The state must work briskly to reopen this urban oasis — and provide the needed staffing to prevent a return of the homeless camps, which, left unchecked, had damaged electricity poles, water spigots and grassy turf.
A similar, unfortunate sweep was necessary earlier this week: of the entrenched encampment under the H-1 freeway viaduct near Nimitz Highway, estimated to cost $4 million.
These two sweeps cleared more than 300 chronically homeless people from state properties. But as tough and costly as these actions were, they pale in comparison with the tougher, costlier solutions that must occur if Hawaii is to make permanent traction against homelessness. Chief among these: truly affordable housing.
