HART chief blasts ‘flawed,’ ‘rushed’ city audit before its release
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM
Dan Grabauskas, executive director and CEO of Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, railed on the upcoming city audit criticizing HART during a press conference at Alii Place today. Grabauskas cited factual errors and flaws in the auditing methods by the city.
Embattled Honolulu rail Executive Director Dan Grabauskas went on the offensive one day before the city auditor’s report on the transit project is slated to be released, criticizing the auditor’s findings and the integrity of his office.
“I’d say that this so-called audit is a joke, but it hasn’t been funny. It’s a mess,” a strident Grabauskas said during a Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation press conference, which was unusual for its timing prior to report’s official release.
Grabauskas, who’s been under fire to resign by Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernie Martin amid rising rail costs and uncertainty, took aim at several of the 21 findings in the yet-to-be-released final report. The auditor found no misspent or unaccounted funds, Grabauskas said.
Grabauskas further excoriated City Auditor Edwin Young for the report’s early leak to several City Council members and local media, despite the report’s “confidential” seal.
“Preliminary information indicates that HART’s financial and subsidiary plans plans are unreliable and outdated and additional cost overruns and shortfalls are likely,” Martin said in an April 7 letter to Mayor Kirk Caldwell that referenced the upcoming audit report.
Grabauskas also said Young pulled him aside immediately prior to a March 31 meeting on the audit and told Grabauskas that Young needed to speed up the report’s response process and release it by April 15 because Young was “under tremendous pressure from members of the City Council to get this out.”
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
Last June, Grabauskas said, Young had told him he would have until this July to finish the audit.
“The process was flawed and the timeline was rushed,” Grabauskas said.
Young did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
75 responses to “HART chief blasts ‘flawed,’ ‘rushed’ city audit before its release”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The blame game is on!!!!!
Another wooden stake into the inept HART of the $24.7 Billion Dollar TITANIC RAIL SCAM from no where to no where and much more than a BLIGHT!!!
STOP THE INSANITY…….STOP THE TITANIC RAIL SCAM!!!
END RAIL NOW.
Changing Grabby and Horner is necessary but will NOT stop the rail financial bleeding.
The mayor should stop the rail guide way at Aloha Stadium and convert the guide to a two lane reversible Freeway which would: cap the rail cost to less than $3 Billion; allow the cancellation of the GET surcharge extension; eliminate utility relocation along Dillingham Blvd ($100 million); eliminate the unsightly structure through downtown; eliminate the power plants, eliminate all the rail stations which cost $25 million each and eliminate the exponential rise in additional rail costs in the downtown route.
The two lane reversible will carry 16,000 commuters per hour compared with 3,000 rail commuters per hour.
STOP RAIL STOP!
We need to focus on our future need for rail instead of politics. Traffic congestion is bad now and will only get worse. We need to just move forward and get the rail finished for relief of traffic hassles.
Mayor said he thought you were doing a good job. Do you think he was being less than forthright about how he really feels or is he buying time to get a replacement in line?
Oh yes, let’s do focus on our future in regards to the rail: namely higher taxes, extended taxes, and potentially new taxes to feed this travesty of a project. And yes, traffic congestion will only get worse even though we’ll spend potentially $10 billion on this rail. The powers-that-be have already acknowledged that rail will NOT relief traffic hassles. Spend $10 billion for NO improvement in traffic congestion? Good going rail fanboys!
Not only will rail ot help traffic, they will also hit our property taxes once the train starts running and the ridership falls short or projections like everything else on the rail project.
The politicos already pitching another spur to UH. God help us.
WE told you so.
There. I said it.
ukuleleblue says: “We need to focus on our future need for rail instead of politics.”
Unfortunately, our public transportation system got hijacked by developers and political insiders and the end result is this corrupt mess of a leaderless, out of control rail project. Meanwhile, no amount of incompetence or bad behavior by rail insiders will deter you from your out of touch, condescending cut-n-paste comments.
Is tonight the night you finally have the courage to admit where you live on the mainland and tell us what your connection is to this mess of a rail project?
That’s really not the point of article. Is the auditor being used for political purposes? That’s the question. It certainly looks like the Council Chair is trying to score political points by using the auditor the same way the IRS has been used to attack political targets.
Blues breaker wrote: “That’s really not the point of article. Is the auditor being used for political purposes? ”
I’m not familiar with the IRS being used politically. Could you explain that accusation?
Whenever HART is criticized, you guys can’t argue on the facts, so you attack them personally. We haven’t even seen the audit yet, but all the knives are out by HART cheerleaders. It happen with Linda Lingle, Panos Prevodourus, Ben Cayetano, and now it’s happening to this auditor.
What do you say we wait and see what the audit says before getting upset the results will be used politically. You can bet that if the audit had found sunshine, roses and a HART working well and. responsibly, Mayor Caldwell would use that politically wouldn’t he?
ukuleleblue, please stop your gasbag comments and propaganda BS. Rail was never intended to have a significant effect on traffic so please stop your childish charades abour traffic relief. You are insulting people’s intelligence with your comments. All the rail is doing in bankrupting Oahu.
Until you disclose where tyou live (address not needed) and your connection to the rail project, you have zero crediility on this forum.
Oh what a tangled web YOU weave when first YOU practice to deceive
“We”? “Our”? UkuBS…please go F yourself
They are all clowns; every single one of them. Starting with the current and former mayors, current and former governors, senators, representatives, council members, Hart, the rail board, every person that looked us straight in the eye and made promises.
They only get their power from the union members, lemmings.
The only joke is Grabby Boy. Here he goes again trying to spin his utter incompetence, saying the audit is a joke. No Grabby, it is not, you are. You willfully fail to do your job to standard every day. You take taxpayer’s money for your salary and give nothing back in return. Time for you to pack your bags, get on the Wiki Wiki bus and head to the airport.
You just don’t get it how experienced, trained auditors do their job, find the problems in projects. You just can’t stand it when they find all the lies and mistakes you have made over the years. Clearly no bonus or pay raise for you this year if you keep your job. Might be time for a “Claw Back.”
Don’t go away mad Grabby. Just go far, far, far, away. Do it now.
And please leave all your “Aloha” shirts to the homeless
Caldwell is a joke, but hard to laugh at all the additional taxes we will be paying so he can pay off his donors.
Why did they have to raise the Rail through the sugar cane fields and Pearl City? They should have started in Town.
The big business interests made sure to start building at the wrong end so that we could not cancel or shorten the project to save money.
Shocking, absolutely shocking. Is Mr Grabaskas really blasting the auditor for leaking the report while holding a press conference to leak the report?
I haven’t seen someone that upset over a report since Peter Carlisle dismissed Linda Lingle’s financial analysis on the rail project, which in retrospect was 100% accurate and cost us taxpayers only a fraction of what the City of Honolulu payed for all those broken promises.
And this totally unexpected, just like those “surprise” telephone poles along the rail route.
Spot on. Absolutely right. Grabby knows nothing about accounting and audit procedure. But he’s been through this before at his last rail job, so he’s trying to preempt the adverse news to lessen the impact. Hhhhmmmmm. That’s a lawyer move, mostly done in jury trials. Oh oh. Someone’s been talking to lawyers. You really know when something is going to hit the fan.
Grabby is blasting the audit, but can he prove any of it is not true?
The joke is on him. His days are numbered. Don’t let the door…
He is really a joke. Lots of folks complained about his numbers not being reliable way before the audit. What will he do when the Inspector General issues their report?
He is a dud!
He is just waiting to get his golden parachute for which the city is going to pay for and add to this huge bill for rail. All the mayors and city counsel are responsible for this. This will go down as the biggest mistake in our history as a city. Our property taxes will increase, and jobs and services from the city will be cut.
Bernier Madoff was an amateur. Wait, I said that last year,
Grabby was hired for his ability to fool the people of Boston (the Big Dig). He’s doing exactly was he was hired for…to fool the people of Oahu.
No the politicians did that easily to the sheep by playing their magical pipes.
I agree with Mr, Grabauskas that it is a “mess”. However, it’s the Rail project that is a “mess”, and not necessarily the audit. I haven’t seen the audit, but I’m looking forward to hearing Mr. Grabauskas’ criticisms of the audit before making a final judgment.
EVERYTHING regarding this rail project is a mess. Everything.
Changing Grabby and Horner is necessary but will NOT stop the rail financial bleeding.
The mayor should stop the rail guide way at Aloha Stadium and convert the guide to a two lane reversible Freeway which would: cap the rail cost to less than $3 Billion; allow the cancellation of the GET surcharge extension; eliminate utility relocation along Dillingham Blvd ($100 million); eliminate the unsightly structure through downtown; eliminate the power plants, eliminate all the rail stations which cost $25 million each and eliminate the exponential rise in additional rail costs in the downtown route.
Empty parking spaces are available during the weekdays at Aloha Stadium which provide an ideal location for a “park and ride” transfer point for express buses to windward Oahu, the Airport/Pearl Harbor and downtown bound commuter destinations. A portion of the Stadium parking area can be easily converted to a major express bus transit station to operate during peak hour traffic ( 3 hours am and 3 hours pm) with departures every five to ten minutes.
For the rest of the day when the rail will be running virtually empty, the buses can be run every 30 to 60 minutes.
This is the most sensible suggestion. Unfortunately, there is no escaping the breach of contract cost that will be generated by the rail car builder and others, but it would still be worth it. People, we don’t lie in our own muck, so throw it out, take out the trash which is this doomed, bankrupting project.
STOP “THE CRAZY-MAKING”! END THE RAIL at the stadium, the HNL AIRPORT, Middle Street–FORTHWITH! JUST END “IT”! EXPAND THE BUS-SYSTEM–BUILD A NEW TERMINAL AT THE RAIL’S “END”!
Yes, The oahu rail project is a total failure. They cannot even get tomrun 100 yards! That is NOT an exageration. HECO currently cannot supply enough power for a train, regardless of the track length. A new fossil fuel electric generator MUST be built on Oahu for the train to run. Grabby-the-failure has not even identified the location and COST to the public to build, maintain and pay for the electricity to run the train therefore the best thing for Oahu resident is to completely SHUT DOWN the rail project. Just leave the rail columns in place to save money but more importantly a permanent reminder what elected gov’t officials like Mufi, Kirk, Nestor, Todd. Dela Cruz, Chang, etc have done to the peope of Hawaii.
Audit sounds absolutely correct to me. How can anyone challenge the facts we faced since it started. Increase after increase, final increase, then more increases. 3 billion to 6 billion and more. It shows how crudly optimistic, negligent and shoddy the rail plan was.
Yes, mayor moofi said it would cost 3.7 billion with a generous contingency fund and go from UH Manoa to Kapolei. Now we’re at 7 billion and climbing and the rail doesn’t even go to UH Manoa. They built it bass ackwards. If it went from UH to the stadium and ran out of money, we would have a viable and useful transit project. All we have is a boondoggle and grabby is surprised that the audit wasn’t “rosy”? Give me a million breaks.
And please ignore the gasbag comments for ukuleleblue and wiliki. They are just propagandists for rail.
HART chief blasts ‘flawed,’ ‘rushed’ city audit before its release…Should read: General Public In Honolulu blast “HART Chief.”Flawed,” “Rushed,” “Rail Project.”
I feel a lawsuit from Dan Grabauskas coming in the near future. I have zero confidence that our gov’t, city or state is capable of doing anything right.
Ernie don’t care as long as his friend gets the job.
The really crappy thing is that this audit will do NOTHING to change the wrong. Politicians will still vote yes to raise taxes to meet costs. This project will continue to spiral out of control because our weak politicians are afraid to put a stop to it. The unions will be right behind them because it keeps their peeps employed. The companies that reap its benefits will continue laughing their way to the banks knowing that all of the above gives this project life. Grim reality that we are doomed to because Mufi rammed it down everyone’s throats. Oh, all who have supported it can share in the blame. This includes those who are in the cheap seats.
If it’s any consolation, they vote yes with reservations. Seriously, this is an election year. Please vote out all incumbents and clean house, Maybe only then will we get a fair shake on this rail project.
What will have effect if the Feds decide to use the results of the City audit for their OWN audit. If they come to the same conclusions they can require the City of Honolulu to payback all federal funds used on the Oahu train project or even threaten withholding all future federal transportation funds to Hawaii. With no money the Oahu rail project will stop permanently, the same way the Feds shut down the Hawaii Health Connector because local politicians were either to afraid or in bed to stop the project.
I’m hoping you are right inverse. The Feds must have some heightened level of interest.
i can kind of understand his point of view. But, was he expecting an opportunity to make the numbers better?
The audit says cost overruns are “likely”. Heck, I would bet serious money that more cost overruns are “guaranteed”.
It ukuleleblue, wiliki or nanakuluiboss want to make a wager of perhaps $10,000, let me know. I’m game!!
I wonder what the audit says about the competency of grabby etal?
Never trusted that guy
Carpetbagger
Let’s extend the rail to UH Manoa! Let’s extend the rail to Ko Olina! Let’s build a rail spur into Waikiki! Let’s build a rail spur to Mililani!
Shell, the rail might run out of money before it reaches middle street.
Know you trying to be funny but in all seriousness the steel on steel train they are using for the Oahu rail probably cannot make the steep run up to Millilani on the raised central plain of Oahu. If it did it would be super slow.
We don’t need the rail to Mililani!! We are happy the way we are. Extensions to the other places are fine. Maybe not to Manoa. We will have rail for UH West Oahu. Who cares about rail for Manoa elitists. UH ’61.
The current Oahu rail project is a total failure and bottomless money pit but and needs to be shut down but the reason why UH is important for a mass transit solution for Oahu us because it is the university and private school commiting crowd that creates gridlock traffic for Oahu. In concept what is needed is a modern maglev or semi-maglev tthat is superlight and requires a minimal elevated support structure (NOT the current Ansaldo/Hitachi steel on steel turn of the century rail car) that would go from Millilani, Ewa beach and Kapolei all the way to UH Manoa and the surrounding private schools and Waikiki. Regarding West Oahu it will never be more than a community college feeder school to UH Manoa. UH faculty will never relocate to West Oahu and UH paying for a new W Oahu campus has diverted critical money need to maintain UH Manoa which has become run down and pathetic.
Shame on the SA for running such a cursory article. While it states that Grabauskas disputes many of the audit report’s finding, the article falls short on detailing those. There are better high school reporters on the island.
It’s just a teaser. The full article will likely be published tomorrow. There’s more information on Civil Beat: http://www.civilbeat.com/2016/04/grabauskas-honolulu-rail-audit-a-mess/.
Civic Beat is the spin doctor for the Democratic Party and Bernie Sanders.
Fire ukuleleblue and wiliki!
And their needy kids (Grabby and Krook)!!
Buh-bye!
Flawed because it details the deficiencies of Rail and HART. Horner knew this and resigned.
I will enter my usual two cents against all you Windward and Eastside haters of any money spent for improvements for West Oahu. If your pen names are real, the same “I got mine, the rest of you can go to hell” are spouting your usual hate for money spent to help West Oahu’s infrastructure. Windward side has three tunnels to Honolulu. How much do you think those would cost, if built today?. Windward elitists don’t care. Oh yes, don’t come crowd our beaches. Stay away.
The Eastsiders don’t want any of the offensive infrastructure to be built in their area.
Keep the electrical generation sites over in West and Central Oahu. Solar farms are OK in Mililani, Waipio, or Waianae Why not at Sandy Beach or the empty Fort Ruger lands. Move the landfill to Haihaione Valley. H-Power is getting old. Build the new incinerator near the Haihaione landfill.
Grow food on Central Oahu and Ewa lands. Oh yes, don’t take any of the Koolau mountain water. We need it all for our twenty taro farmers.
You greedy Windwarders and Eastsiders make me sick. We will finish rail, regardless of cost or time. I will never see it. I will be long dead. There will be a special property tax rate for $2 million homes to pay for the rail I will never ride to Ala Moana.
Slow down, nobody is against relief for Westside commuters but this Rail is Not the answer and will Not help traffic. Take your meds
Was day: Did you read all of the comments above? I have been hearing rubbish like this all the way back to Rene Mansho. Are you old enough to know who Rene Mansho is. She is the Councilwoman who killed “Rail” twenty years ago. Otherwise, we would have been using rail for ten years at a hell of a lot less money.
By the way, I don’t need the weed that you are anxiously awaiting for.
Mililani, you must have been fooled by rail propaganda. Rail will not have any significant effect on traffic. That’s why its a waste of money. If you’re from Mililani, it’s even worse for you because an express bus will no longer be an option. You’ll be busing to Waipahu to catch the rail and the transfers will make your commute longer than without rail.
When UH is on break, traffic is light. But the rail doesn’t go to UH.
So………you think this is a hot mess?…………..you ain’t seen nothing yet……….the best is yet to come!!!
Yea, just wait until all the potheads get their heads into legal medical pot. You think driving on Oahu is crazy now.
Wow, you really want to change the subject away from this scathing audit on rail,mod the you.
And in Colorado, roads actually safer when marijuana was legalized.
Actually Grabauskas was talking about the fixed rail project when he said “rushed” and “flawed”.
The headline should read, “Honolulu’s rail flawed and rushed”.