Key legislative leaders are threatening to hold up $160 million in funding to overhaul the state psychiatric hospital in Kaneohe if the state Department of Health can’t show that it’s moving fast enough to complete the project.
The Hawaii State Hospital has been plagued with problems for years, including lax security and assaults by patients on staff. Gov. David Ige’s administration has made building a new facility on the same grounds, equipped with increased security and more beds, a top priority of his administration. He is asking the Leg- islature to sign off on $160 million in general obligations bonds to finance it.
“Our timeline is to get this done in five years or less. If I have any say in it, it is going to be a lot less than five years.”
Virginia Pressler
Director, state Department of Health
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But Thursday during a budget briefing at the state Capitol, lawmakers complained about the project’s lengthy timeline and delays in tearing down a campus building that’s contaminated with asbestos and lead paint.
In 2013 the Legislature appropriated funding to tear down the Goddard Building, which has sat vacant for years. But the state has yet to award a contract for the work — bids for the project, which could cost more than $5 million, were due today, according to the Department of Accounting and General Services.
The Health Department’s new master plan for the State Hospital includes building one of the facilities where the Goddard Building sits.
State Rep. Sylvia Luke, chairwoman of the House Finance Committee, said she needs to have more confidence in the department’s ability to execute the project and complained about the new hospital’s shifting timeline — initially state officials said it would take eight years, and now they say it will be done in five years or less.
“I’m going to give you folks a little bit of incentive. If you folks don’t demolish that building by the time we address the budget in mid-March, I have no interest in providing any money for the State Hospital,” she said. “Because if we can’t tear down a building that you got money for two years ago, what kind of assurance do I have that you are going to actually build something in five years? So prove us wrong and do something by March. If it doesn’t come by March, then don’t expect $160 million from the House.”
Virginia Pressler, director of the Health Department, said she understood the frustration but maintained that it wouldn’t be possible to demolish the building within two months given that DAGS just received bids on the project today.
“We cannot have the Goddard Building down by March, so I do not want that to be the benchmark for us to be able to move forward on this critical project,” she said. “We are all committed to making sure it gets done in a timely manner.”
Pressler told lawmakers that the delays in tearing down the building would not postpone construction of the new hospital. She said that multiple permits and approvals for the $160 million project are being worked on simultaneously and that the department plans to award a single design-and-build contract to expedite the project.
The Ige administration has also convened a Cabinet-level steering committee, which meets on a regular basis, to oversee the new hospital, said Pressler. The committee includes Pressler and representatives from the Governor’s Office, DAGS, the attorney general’s office and the Department of Budget and Finance.
“You can be sure that I am going to be bird-dogging this on a daily and weekly basis,” said Pressler, adding that she would be happy to provide lawmakers with regular progress reports.
“Our timeline is to get this done in five years or less,” she said. “If I have any say in it, it is going to be a lot less than five years.”
After the hearing, Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa-Nuuanu) said that she stood by her position that the Goddard Building needs to be torn down by mid-March in order for her to consider $160 million in new funding for the State Hospital. She also said that her committee will consider stretching the funding out over five years.
“Then we can hold the department’s feet to the fire, and we can hold the contractor’s feet to the fire,” said Luke. “Once we lose the power of the purse and appropriate everything, then there is no leverage for us to come and question them.”
DAGS spokeswoman Cathy Chin told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after the budget briefing that demolition of the Goddard Building is a top priority and is expected to begin in March as long as there is no bid protest.
“We will work to expedite permits and move ahead as quickly as possible while maintaining health and safety,” she said by email.
A decade ago the Health Department commissioned a master plan to revamp the State Hospital, but it was never funded.
A new master plan for the facility unveiled in September includes increasing the facility’s overall capacity to 516 from 178 beds.
At that time the Health Department said that there had been 327 assaults or attempted assaults on staff at the facility over the past 2-1/2 years. In 2014 hospital staff filed a class-action suit against the state claiming supervisors created an unsafe work environment.
