Ivan Lui-Kwan, a rail board member whose term is set to expire June 30, will not reapply for a second five-year term, according to a Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation spokesman.

Meanwhile, as the rail transit project faces new massive financial hurdles, the Honolulu City Council is not getting much interest from candidates to replace Lui-Kwan on the unpaid volunteer board, according to one Council member.

“It has been my honor to serve this great city over my five-year term. This rail project continues to represent public transportation equity, particularly for the people of the west side of Oahu,” Lui-Kwan said in a statement provided by HART spokesman Bill Brennan. “I will continue to work with Native Hawaiian leaders on our community and business projects which hold significant potential to provide health community opportunities for our Native Hawaiian community.”

Lui-Kwan, an attorney with the firm Starn O’Toole Marcus and Fisher, has served on the HART board since its 2011 inception. His tenure included a stint as chairman in 2014 and 2015, when the project faced its first, $910 million budget shortfall and city leaders sought state authorization to extend the rail tax.

The project eventually got a five-year tax extension, which rail officials said would likely be enough to cover the costs. However, the project now faces a renewed shortfall that federal officials have said could be more than $1 billion.

The Council appoints three of the 10 board members for HART, which is a semiautonomous agency that oversees rail. Trevor Ozawa, who chairs the Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee, said that the Council is still trying to find qualified candidates to replace Lui-Kwan. So far, no one on the Council has submitted nominees, according to Ozawa.

“We’re not seeing interest,” he said after his committee met briefly Thursday. “Nobody’s really jumping up to get in this position.”

On Thursday, Ozawa’s committee approved a resolution with language that appoints someone to the HART board, but it left the name of the appointee blank. The Council has given itself until Wednesday to submit nominees for the board. Those nominees would then be considered at the body’s full June 1 meeting, according to Ozawa.

Lui-Kwan’s successor as board chairman, Don Horner, resigned from the board April 12 amid calls from Council Chairman Ernie Martin for him to step down — as well as comments from Mayor Kirk Caldwell that he had planned to make the same request — as rail started to face renewed financial scrutiny.

“Whoever the nominee is … we need true facts,” Red Hill resident Willie Holly Jr. said after attending Thursday’s meeting. “No matter how bad the news may be, just tell the truth about it. You’ll get farther along with the public doing that.”