As Honolulu comes under federal scrutiny over the expanding cost and financial control of the elevated rail mass transit project, asking the question of how decisions are made may be the best chance to redeem what is proving to be a costly lesson in municipal government.
The City and County of Honolulu encompasses all of Oahu, making the mayor and the nine members of the City Council the sole arbitrators for municipalities as diverse as Downtown Honolulu and rural Kahuku.
The City and County of Honolulu structure was established by Charter in 1907, when Oahu had a much smaller population and a predominantly agricultural economic base.
This combined city and county structure concentrates power, which means decisions are made with less public input, accountability and consideration than what might be achieved with other governing formulas.
The impetus for an entity like the City and County of Honolulu to take on a mass transit project that, in both in design and scope, would not have been undertaken on the state government level, may well be attributed to an imbalance of public versus government influence.
This opens the question of whether Oahu would be better served by a real Oahu county government servicing all of Oahu, with municipalities such as the City of Honolulu and the City of Kapolei or even the City of Kailua or Haleiwa dealing with issues and services that impact them locally.
Separate municipal and county governments are the norm across the United States, with the combined city and county structure being rarely used or wanted.
Making government more accountable by creating separate branches is the basis of the American revolutionary approach. The 10th Amendment reserves powers not vested in the federal government for the individual states.
Each state in turn can give police powers to incorporated municipalities and to counties to build a leaner, more responsive government at the local level.
A county government can oversee water delivery, sewage systems and road work, with a private or publicly held industry supplying power.
Incorporated municipalities have the right to enter into contracts to purchase such county services and any other services, in any manner or design they see fit, to supply a government that is as direct and accountable to their constituents as possible.
A natural question would be: How can we afford separate county and municipal governments?
The incredible cost of massive public works is why an investment in additional public oversight may make operating separate county and municipal governments a bargain in the long run.
Even if the rail project is completed, and if the estimated yearly operating cost doesn’t overwhelm its value as a mass transit system, the process the City and County of Honolulu employs in making critical long-term decisions still deserves a 21st century reexamination regarding its efficiency.
Creating county and municipal governments that are more accountable and responsive to the public is the formula utilized in modern democracies for citizens to exercise more control over their own lives and to protect and promote the interest of their unique communities.
The quantity and quality of public input into government decisions, especially those that have a major impact on individuals and society, must be undergirded by the most efficient and robust political architecture possible for attaining democratic consensus.
Paul Mossman is a former member of the Kailua Neighborhood Board and former candidate for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
