Federal investigators want the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to turn over minutes for its board’s meetings as part of its criminal investigation into the $9.2 billion project.
Among the documents being demanded under the subpoena are the minutes for closed-door meetings that HART refused to provide to state Auditor Les Kondo last year.
The subpoena served on HART late Thursday, and distributed to media Monday, is the third received by the agency in about two weeks.
All three subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney’s Office say the documents are to be delivered by March 21, the day a federal grand jury is taking up the matter. HART Chief Executive Officer Andrew Robbins said Monday, however, that his office already has been granted an extension for submittal of all the documents, given the volume being ordered.
The third subpoena specifically directs HART to provide electronically “Complete and unredacted copies of all HART Board of Directors meeting minutes including but not limited to minutes taken during executive session” between Jan. 1, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2018.
Kondo, who was instructed by the state Legislature to audit the project, told the HART board in September that he believed the HART administration was foot-dragging on releasing information to him for his audit.
He requested in July that the board turn over executive session minutes from 2014, 2015 and 2016. But two months later he had received only the minutes from June 2016 to September 2017, Kondo said.
He held up for HART board members the pages of 2016 board executive session meeting minutes that were almost entirely redacted or blacked out before they were released to his office.
The auditor’s office is allowed to keep records it receives confidential and regularly obtains confidential information from state agencies, including communications between the agencies and their attorneys, Kondo said in September.
Kondo could not be reached for comment Monday.
The Federal Transit Administration agreed to provide $1.55 billion for the project but has delayed giving the city about half the amount pending approval of a rail recovery plan. That plan is supposed to explain how the project price tag has ballooned to $9.2 billion, including financing costs, from the $5.26 billion figure that city officials quoted when the FTA money was first approved.
Robbins, at a press conference Monday afternoon, said he’s received no indication from FTA officials that the subpoenas or the investigation are jeopardizing project funding. “My information is the resumption of the federal funding relates to the approval of the recovery plan. That’s the only thing that really I’ve ever heard from the FTA.”
FTA officials are expected to begin review of the city recovery plan next month, he said.
HART Board Chairman Damien Kim, appearing next to Robbins at the press conference, said the agency will do its best to comply with the subpoena after speaking with its attorneys.
The subpoena does raise some issues, he said. “Executive session is so that we can confer with our attorneys about some of the issues that might be in there. So like with the state audit, we just was worried that there’s some attorney-client privileges in there that we just want to exercise our rights and make sure that if we need to do something, we’ll do it. But we have to see what our attorneys have to say.”
Robbins said that in response to Kondo’s request, “certain minutes were redacted, and that was the position the board took at that time.”
Robbins said Friday that the second subpoena calls for information about the project’s relocation program, including 18 files that were part of an internal review that revealed overpayments to owners or tenants who were being relocated.
The first subpoena, made earlier this month, sought tens of thousands of documents in connection with the 20-mile, East Kapolei- to-Ala Moana rail line, the largest public works project in state history. Robbins said those documents dealt with the project’s initial stages.
Robbins and Kim both said they have not received subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury and don’t know of anyone else associated with HART who has.
As with the previous two subpoenas, HART officials delayed disclosure about receiving the third one until a few days after its receipt. Robbins said he got word of the third subpoena late Thursday, as he was walking out of his office. Only earlier that day he had held a news conference to discuss the second subpoena.
Robbins said he waited until Monday to inform the public because of “protocol” involving the agency informing board members and others, as well as conferring with attorneys first.
The city attorneys advising the HART board and administration are from the Department of Corporation Counsel, the city’s civil litigation arm. Corporation Counsel Donna Leong, who heads the department, has been on paid voluntary leave since January when she received a letter from the federal Justice Department informing her that she may be a target in the separate, wide-ranging investigation involving former Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, former city Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.
Asked whether the subpoenas are eroding public confidence that the project is being managed properly, Kim said, “I’m sure it doesn’t help, that’s for sure.”
Mayor Kirk Caldwell told reporters Monday morning, “I don’t look at this as good news … but I also see it as a welcome thing in terms of doing whatever investigations need to be done, put everything out there to assure the public that the project is being managed well — and if it isn’t, to have the corrections made that need to be made so that it continues forward.”
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