After months of delay, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s board of directors finally held its leadership election Friday.
HART board Chair Colleen Hanabusa and Vice Chair Kika Bukoski were respectively reelected to serve as chair and vice chair through June 30, charged with overseeing the nearly $10 billion Skyline construction project.
The election for the HART governing board had been delayed since the summer as rancor arose among many on the panel.
That rancor involved HART Executive Director and CEO Lori Kahikina’s ongoing tenure, which appeared tenuous at best following claims she’d fostered low morale and the loss of staff and displayed a lack of leadership while running the rail agency.
Still, Kahikina would gain a new work agreement — a three-year, $336,000 annual contract that starts Jan. 1 — that a majority of the board approved in early September. Hanabusa abstained from that vote.
Prior to that contract agreement, however, tension between Hanabusa and Kahikina became public after the two had a contentious exchange during an April board meeting over the departure of a key project leader.
Hanabusa also was embroiled in allegations she’d bullied and harassed Kahikina while serving as board chair.
Previously, Hanabusa said May 22 that she had referred prior concerns about Kahikina’s treatment by the board to the city’s human resources department for investigation, in a move that Hanabusa called “self-reporting myself.”
At that time, Hanabusa, appointed to a five-year term in 2021 by Mayor Rick Blangiardi, indicated she would step down as chair but would remain on the board.
On Friday, though, no board member other than Hanabusa — who did not refuse a nomination to stay on as chair — presented themselves as alternatives to the current leadership.
But Bukoski — who openly declined to run for board chair, citing time constraints to serve in that capacity — aired his concerns over the project’s future.
And although he claimed support for Hanabusa’s past work as the board’s leader, Bukoski said he believed “there are others who are interested in serving as the chair.”
“And I think some of the internal issues may still remain,” he added, “and may still pose a challenge to the board.”
Bukoski said challenges included finishing the $1.66 billion contract to design and build rail’s final 3-mile segment to Kakaako — the City Center Guideway and Stations, or CCGS, project — as well as potentially extending the rail line farther east to Ala Moana Center, among other issues.
Later, Bukoski nominated HART board member Ed Sniffen, who currently serves as state transportation director, to be the next board chair.
But board member Anthony Aalto, who supported Hanabusa as chair, said Sniffen rarely attended HART board meetings. Sniffen was not present at Friday’s meeting.
And Aalto added, “I’m not aware of any internal issues going forward,” either.
Another board member, Roger Morton, director of the city Department of Transportation Services and tasked with operating and maintaining Skyline, was also asked whether he’d be interested in becoming HART’s next chair.
Morton declined, however, citing his busy work schedule.
As far as possibly stepping down as board chair, Hanabusa told the panel Friday that prior comments she made occurred during “a critical stage” of the Skyline project.
“We had CCGS going, we had Lori’s contract going at that time, and I did not want to be the focus, to put it bluntly,” Hanabusa said. “So the intention was to have the board look at someone; I mean someone else would become the board chair.”
She added, “I only serve as chair if you guys want me to serve as chair.”
“It’s not something that I say, ‘Hey, I’m going to be it and that’s it.’ It’s not. It’s a vote that’s taken by the board, and the board’s confidence is what is critical to the running of HART,” she said.
As far as the city’s investigation into claims of bullying Kahikina, Hanabusa said, “I don’t know anything.”
“I’ve asked about what happened to my ‘self- reporting,’ and I’ve had absolutely no response from anybody,” she added.
For its part, the Mayor’s Office offered no information to the Honolulu Star- Advertiser on the status of the city’s investigation into harassment allegations involving Hanabusa, the board and Kahikina.
“We understand that this matter arose in a public meeting, however, the Department of Human Resources does not comment on personnel matters,” Scott Humber, the mayor’s communications director, told the Star-Advertiser on Friday.
Ultimately, the board voted — with board members Lisa Baker and Bukoski dissenting — to reelect Hanabusa as the board’s chair.
Bukoski was unanimously reelected to serve as the panel’s vice chair.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the last name of HART board of directors’ Vice Chair Kika G. Bukoski.
