Horner resigns as chair of Honolulu rail agency
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Mayor Kirk Caldwell, center, announces that he has accepted chairman Don Horner’s resignation from HART. Also at the press conference were two HART board members, Mike Formby, left, director of the Department of Transportation Services, and Colleen Hanabusa.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / APRIL 2014
Don Horner
Don Horner, embattled board chair of the agency overseeing Honolulu’s rail project, has resigned from the board.
Horner submitted his resignation to Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell after an approximately 20-minute meeting today at Honolulu Hale.
“Too often in politics, the focus becomes shooting the messenger of unpleasant news rather than collaboratively working on solutions,” Horner wrote in his resignation letter to Caldwell.
The move comes several days after Honolulu Council Chairman Ernie Martin, Caldwell’s top political rival and a potential mayoral candidate, called for Horner and Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Executive Dan Grabauskas to resign amid concerns of project mismanagement.
Horner, the retired chairman of First Hawaiian Bank, had served on the volunteer 10-member HART board since its inception and had been reappointed to a new four-year term this past summer.
