Keeping politics out of rail was the rationale for the 2011 charter amendment taking direct control of Oahu rail from the mayor and City Council and giving it to the new Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.

Turns out it was more about hiding the politics.

Now the curtain has been ripped down in the fight between HART board Chair Colleen Hanabusa and CEO Lori Kahikina, which has the agency in turmoil at a critical time that could determine whether we leave the line half-finished or throw billions of dollars more at a project already grossly over budget.

Hanabusa, on her second tour as HART chair, is a former congresswoman and state legislator — the ultimate politician. So much for keeping politics out of rail.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi, a politician HART was aimed at keeping away from rail, is playing the adult in the room, trying to mediate between Hanabusa and Kahikina and fend off retribution from the Federal Transit Administration if rail goes off the tracks again just when it seemed to be stabilizing.

The best boards of directors that oversee private companies or public agencies act in a collegial manner, using talents of all members to work productively with executive leadership for the betterment of the organization.

Competition drives the organization of political bodies like the Legislature, with favored majorities and frozen-out minorities. Committee chairs have dictatorial power. Loyalty to each other trumps loyalty to the public they serve. Relations with the administration are viewed as adversarial.

Bringing a political dynamic to a nonpolitical organization is what brought down the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate board in the 1990s, when former lawmakers Henry Peters and Richard Wong ran it like a legislative panel.

Recent moves at HART have a similar vibe.

Kahikina has stabilized rail since her 2021 appointment, getting the first leg running despite inherited engineering problems, making progress on tricky Dillingham Boulevard utilities and working with Blangiardi to get a recovery plan approved by the FTA and federal funds flowing again.

But Hanabusa, an admirer of Peters and Wong, appears bent on forcing out Kahikina when her term ends in December. She’s loudly berated the CEO at meetings, and the board gave her a tepid performance evaluation grumbling mainly about insufficient kowtowing to the board.

Kahikina has political skills herself, fighting back effectively by marshaling support from HART employees and the public.

Chaos has ensued, with the FTA concerned about new instability as a key contract for the final Civic Center segment is being negotiated. HART has no clear succession plan if Kahikina goes, and the discord has hindered filling other vacancies.

Blangiardi finally stepped in and publicly urged the board to give Kahikina a new three-year contract, but board members appear to be pressing ahead against her with the old legislative trick of letting her detractors speak secretly in executive session instead of on the public record like her supporters.

It’s looking like a game of blame avoidance if the civic center bids come in over budget and HART, already having run its original $5 billion budget to $10 billion, must ask the Legislature for a third bailout.