Attorney Terrance Lee’s nomination to the board overseeing the city’s $6 billion rail project was approved by the Honolulu City Council this week.
Lee’s nomination had raised some eyebrows because he replaces Kesley Hui, the Honolulu Authority for Rail Transportation board’s finance chairman.
Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi had separately submitted Hui’s name for a second term, but Council Chairman Ernie Martin then put in Lee’s nomination.
Martin said that he could not be certain, after talking with Hui, whether he would be able to ask the tough questions Council members would want.
The Council voted 8-0 Tuesday in favor of the nomination, with members Brandon Elefante and Kymberly Pine casting "yes" votes with reservations.
There are nine voting members on the all-volunteer HART board. The city director of planning and permitting is a 10th, nonvoting member.
The Council deliberated on the nomination for more than an hour.
In response to questions by Council members, Lee said he did not think there was anything different that HART board members could have done to keep the state’s most expensive public works project in history from incurring nearly $1 billion in unanticipated costs.
Lee said it’s been explained to him by HART Chairman Ivan Lui-Kwan that court challenges from rail opponents can be blamed for about $600,000 of the extra costs. As a corporate attorney, he said, "I know that time delay can be very costly to a project, especially a project of this magnitude."
He said one thing he would do to keep costs down is to try to encourage as many qualified contractors as possible to submit bids for the project segments.
Lee said he was neutral on the project "before it became reality," and was apathetic to critics troubled by its high price tag and supporters crying out for traffic relief for West Oahu commuters.
"Here we are today, rail’s the reality. Like it or not, it’s what is there. So we have to try to do the best job we can to manage that project, try to make sure it comes in within budget and try to make sure that the future cost for maintenance and operation … and ridership … are managed in the best possible way."
Asked whether there were any circumstances that would cause him to halt the partially completed project, Lee said, "Obviously, any decision to stop the project would have to present some extremely compelling reasons for that. But if that is what I believe is in the best interest of the City and County of Honolulu and its residents and its future generations, yes, I would do that."
Several Council members who supported Lee said they wanted a nominee who could look at the project with fresh eyes. Martin praised Lee for being the first HART board nominee to go before the Council and say he would consider halting the project.
Those City Council members raising reservations, however, said they didn’t see the need to replace Hui, who, as chairman of HART’s finance committee, had gained a wealth of knowledge about the project and knew what questions to ask.
