Mayor Rick Blangiardi attempted to quell uncertainty over leadership of the city’s rail project Tuesday by directing the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board to offer a multiyear contract to Lori Kahikina and fully cooperate with an investigation into any alleged “bullying and harassment” of her by the board.
Blangiardi sent his two-page memo to the HART board and Kahikina — HART’s CEO and executive director — ahead of a scheduled HART Human Resources Committee meeting on Friday when Kahikina’s future has been scheduled for discussion.
Her $275,000 contract expires Dec. 31, and Kahikina told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last week that it was clear to her that the board wants her gone.
In a statement to the Star-Advertiser during a rail conference in Cleveland,
Kahikina wrote Tuesday night, “I appreciate Mayor Blangiardi engaging on this matter and I agree with the FTA (Federal Transit Administration) that leadership stability is incredibly important for the project, especially at this critical time. I am a dedicated public servant as demonstrated by my nearly 20 years of working at the City and County of Honolulu and I’m deeply committed to this project and serving the taxpayers.”
HART Chair Colleen Hanabusa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Questions over who will lead HART into the future have generated concerns over upcoming contract bids to build the last segment of rail into Kakaako, along with questions from the FTA over a future round of federal funding because of uncertainty over HART’s leadership.
Following nearly three years of tensions between Kahikina and the board after Blangiardi appointed Hanabusa to the board in July 2021, Kahikina told the Star-Advertiser last week that some HART staff wanted her to file an official complaint with the city about her treatment by the board, which she declined to do.
The soured relationship went before the City Council during a recent HART budget update when board member Natalie Iwasa described the way Kahikina was being treated as a “corrosive environment.”
Friday’s agenda before HART’s Human Resources Committee also includes discussion of an item described as “Referral of Recent Media Reports Regarding Board Member Conduct for Investigation/Action” that may be related to Iwasa.
Blangiardi, in a previous statement, said that any issues between Kahikina and HART’s 12-member, unpaid, volunteer board needed to be “resolved in HART and we are taking steps to facilitate a resolution of differences.”
On Tuesday he took a firmer position while attempting to tamp down comments in the media by outlining specific steps, which include restricting discussions of personnel matters to board meetings.
Blangiardi, in his memo, described his role as “chief executive officer of the city” with “a voice, but no vote, in the proceedings of all boards provided for by … charter and by ordinance.”
But he nevertheless issued directives “on recent personnel matters between the CEO and the (HART) Board” to:
>> “Cooperate with the Mayor and Managing Director in the investigation of
alleged bullying and harassment of the CEO by the HART Board.
>> “Suspend all public discussion of personnel matters subject to investigation, except within the context of public and open HART Board meetings in which both the HART CEO and the HART Board may speak and conduct business.
>> “Provide the HART CEO a multiyear contract extension in which both the HART CEO and the HART Board exercise their responsibilities, authority and powers and, for which, each side will be accountable for their performance and conduct.”
In the last quarter of 2023, after agreeing with FTA officials “on the need to prioritize project stability, I strongly recommended the HART Board extend the CEO’s contract,” Blangiardi wrote in his memo. “Since then, relations between the HART CEO and the HART Board have become increasingly tense.”
On Monday the FTA told the Star-Advertiser that instability at HART’s leadership could threaten the next round of $250 million in federal funds expected by HART.
The $9.8 billion project currently plans to run along an 18.75-mile route through 19 stations from East Kapolei to Kakaako.
The first segment opened for ridership a year ago between East Kapolei and Aloha Stadium.
Kahikina told the Star-Advertiser last week that she would be insulted if the board offered her a one-year contract extension given the project’s turnaround under her leadership.
Some of her male predecessors were compensated more, with three-year contracts that sometimes made them the city’s highest-paid employees.
Asked whether she would stay on if she were offered a three-year contract like her predecessors — if Hanabusa continued on the board — Kahikina said she would have to “think about that.”
At the end of his memo Tuesday, Blangiardi wrote:
“By this Memorandum, as CEO of the City and County of Honolulu, I am calling on the HART CEO, HART staff and HART Board to prioritize this transformative taxpayer-funded project and put personal differences aside. We owe it to the FTA and the taxpayers of the City and County of Honolulu.”
