I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry over the article, “Charter amendment proposal would dissolve HART” (Star-Advertiser, July 21).

City Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson wants to move oversight of the rail project to the city’s Department of Transportation Services to give elected officials direct responsibility for the project’s progress.

The timing of this proposal could not have been worse.

We finally have an experienced and competent Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation management team working very complex issues, including the federal approval of a recovery plan, federal investigations underway over earlier accounting problems, and a public-private concept for the final and most challenging rail segment.

The HART board was created with three Council-appointed members plus representation by state and city transportation directors. Did these members not provide progress reports to the mayor and Council?

Moving responsibility for an enormously complex and expensive project to city management unable to execute a bulky-item pickup project is preposterous. The Council cannot even agree on the simple task of repairing Honolulu Hale.

Jim McDiarmid

Mililani

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