Many of us the city writes off as anti-rail aren’t against mass transit at all. We just have doubts about the ability of our elected officials to run the biggest public works project in Hawaii’s history in an honest, competent and cost-conscious manner.

We’ve had the state needlessly run up the cost to Oahu taxpayers by skimming 10 percent of the rail excise tax to pay for nonrail projects statewide.

We’ve watched the estimated cost of rail nearly double to $5.3 billion as the city pursues a gold-plated, all-elevated system that seems more train than a community our size needs or can afford.

We’ve seen credible advocates cut out of the debate for suggesting a cheaper and less environmentally intrusive light rail system.

And now we learn that the city didn’t do basic due diligence before selecting the Italian firm Ansaldo for a $1.45 billion contract to design, build, operate and maintain rail cars.

There have been concerns from the start about Ansaldo’s financial situation and reports from other cities of performance problems with the vendor.

Knowing that, it was shocking when a city bid evaluator admitted in a state hearing last week that there were no reference checks on Ansaldo’s past performance before it was chosen for one of the biggest contracts the city will ever award.

Now Finmeccanica, a conglomerate that holds the Ansaldo companies, is admitting that "structural problems" in the rail unit have caused difficulty in producing rail cars for customers and that the rail car business might be sold if "urgent restructuring"  doesn’t solve financial and managerial problems.

Two other bidders that lost out to Ansaldo Honolulu — Sumitomo Corp. and Bombardier Transportation — filed appeals with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, alleging among other things that Ansaldo was allowed to understate total costs to make the city look good. The appeals could end up in court.

Whatever DCCA rules about whether the city followed the letter of the law, the bigger issue is whether transit officials did competent due diligence on a hugely important contract.

If the new Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is going to provide the independent and professional rail management and accountability it promises, it needs to get to the bottom of the city’s shoddy vetting and set it right.

HART Chairwoman Carrie Okinaga and Vice Chairman Ivan Lui-Kwan, both attorneys, wouldn’t hire legal secretaries without reference checks. Finance Chairman Don Horner wouldn’t hire a teller at his bank that way.

We don’t need Ansaldo’s drama clouding public confidence that we’ve got control of rail costs and contractor performance.

If the company’s long-term reliability can’t be established without a lot of waiting and seeing, we should move on.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.