Lori Kahikina’s position as the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s top executive and her leadership of the rail agency’s nearly $10 billion city Skyline project is expected to continue for the foreseeable future, following a vote of its board of director’s Friday afternoon.

At the same meeting, HART board Chair Colleen Hanabusa indicated — but did not fully explain — that she plans to step down as the leader of the nine-member board of directors, pending a deferred annual board leadership election that’s expected to be held later this year.

Tension between Hanabusa and Kahikina became public after the two had a contentious exchange during an April board meeting.

After much debate as well as a closed-door executive session today, HART’s board voted to provisionally grant the agency’s CEO and executive director a new multi-year contract, with a minimum of three years, subject to terms and conditions to be negotiated, including Kahikina’s future salary.

Her current contract, which pays $275,000 annually, is set to expire Dec. 31. Under the vote, her next contract, if adopted by the board, will start Jan. 1.

Kahikina’s contract negotiations – likely to include her personal attorney – could either involve the board’s human resources committee or possibly see two designated board members.

The contract deliberations are expected to be conducted in private and, according to Hanabusa, those negotiations are not expected “to go past August.”

The vote on Kahikina was prefaced with testimony – written and oral – largely in support of Kahikina’s leadership despite criticism of creating an atmosphere of low morale and not addressing loss of HART employees. Kahikina was named HART’s permanent CEO in 2022.

To that end, the vote on Kahikina comes as the Federal Transit Administration, which in 2023 released $125 million in federal funds to HART for the first time since 2017, raised concerns over the uncertainty of the rail agency’s leadership.