When it comes to a $1.66 billion publicly funded rail contract, the public agency awarding the contract must be transparent and release the recorded minutes of that decision-making meeting. The meeting has now been posted, two weeks later and after a bit of questioning.

The contract to build rail’s final city segment was awarded by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation on Aug. 13 in a closed-door meeting, with a pledge to release the recording to the public. “Our intention is after award (of the contract) … we would release the recording of the executive session, because the executive session only needs to be confidential for as long as those procurement discussions are ongoing,” said city attorney Daniel Gluck at the time. “So the intention is not to keep this confidential forever, but only until award.”

After some redaction for considerations such as attorney-client privilege, the recording is now posted online; see 808ne.ws/HARTmeeting.