Embattled executive Dan Grabauskas’ fate with the largest public works project in Hawaii history could be disclosed today as the board overseeing rail resumes its closed-door discussions on his job performance.
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s board of directors has already spent more than 16 hours discussing the matter in private and given itself two 60-day extensions since April to keep those talks going.
Today’s meeting is the last regularly scheduled one before the board’s latest deadline on Grabauskas’ annual review expires Sunday.
Grabauskas is in the second year of a three-year contract and earns $299,250 a year. His contract includes a severance payment equal to his base salary of $257,250 if he’s let go without cause. It further states that the board must give him written notice at least 60 days in advance if it decides to end his employment without cause.
The estimated price tag for the rail project has skyrocketed in recent months as the recently reshuffled HART board spent hours at a time discussing Grabauskas’ job. The HART executive has attributed much of the escalating costs to the island’s red-hot construction market, which he’s pointed out has hit other building projects on Oahu as well. “It’s bad luck,” he said in June.
Nonetheless, some members on the board, led by Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa, and other island leaders have sharply criticized Grabauskas’ guidance in the past couple of years, as well as HART’s seeming inability to anticipate or warn the public of the skyrocketing costs.
In 2015, Grabauskas and rail officials told state lawmakers that a five-year rail tax extension would likely be more than enough to complete the project. It now faces a renewed deficit of at least $8.3 billion, according to the latest official estimates.
“Every step along the way, we’ve missed the numbers,” HART board member and city Transportation Services Director Mike Formby said in June. In recent months Grabauskas has kept a lower profile at HART board meetings, often deferring to agency staff to answer all of the board’s questions. He’s also deferred to Hanabusa and Formby to handle most media queries, even though he traditionally handled that task before Hanabusa became chairwoman.
In April, City Council Chairman Ernie Martin, who at the time was considering a run against Mayor Kirk Caldwell, called on Grabauskas to resign. The rail agency director has affirmed that he wants to stay on, however. Caldwell has criticized Grabauskas, but he hasn’t called for Grabauskas’ resignation, saying it’s up to the board to decide.
Caldwell, who appointed Hanabusa to the board, did encourage the HART body last spring to look “long and hard” at what he felt were recent communication snafus.
Former congressman and City Councilman Charles Djou, who looks to unseat Caldwell in this fall’s mayoral race, held a press conference Wednesday ahead of the HART meeting to call for Grabauskas’ dismissal.
“The leadership of rail has been a complete disaster … and I think the dismissal … will be an important initial step to rebuilding trust in City Hall with this disastrous rail project,” Djou said.
20160728 Bod Dag Evaluation Packet
