Inside Honolulu: March 29
The City Council enters a busy week of committee meetings. Council members have been briefed on departmental budgets, but it remains to be seen how they’ll try to alter the mayor’s spending plan. Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.
Laie hotel deferred
4:23 p.m.
A proposed resolution to give the Mormon Church special permits to construct a 220-room hotel on the former site of the old Laie Inn was deferred Tuesday without explanation after Zoning Committee members asked for an executive session to consult with attorneys.
The proposal has the support of many in the Koolau Loa community, who packed the committee meeting room to standing-room only with their powder blue shirts. Polynesian Cultural Center executive Alfred Grace said an adjoining hotel will allow visitors to purchase multi-day passes just like at Disneyland.
A small smattering of opponents raised concerns about traffic and drainage, and complained that the three- or four-story hotel will change the rural character of the region.
After the closed-door session, Deputy Corporation Counsel Don Kitaoka told lawmakers that staff had identified a “legal issue … that may affect this project.”
The next meeting could be held closer to Laie at the request of district Council member Ernie Martin.
— Michael Levine
Rail Critics Seek Donations
1:58 p.m.
Rail critic Cliff Slater held a press conference today to introduce Nicholas Yost, the lawyer who will help him and others fight the city’s $5.5 billion rail project. Slater told Civil Beat a lawsuit will be filed in about three to four weeks. Slater says he and his supporters are looking for donations to fund the legal action.
City Would Pay Ansaldo $913 Million in First Five Years
City Council member and rail critic Ann Kobayashi continues to raise concerns about how the city will pay for its $5.5 billion rail proposal. Though Kobayashi did not meet with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood while he was in Honolulu last week, she wrote him detailing some of those concerns, including the $574 million contract the city announced last week they want to award to Ansaldo Honolulu.
“The $574 million contract awarded to Ansaldo Honolulu guarantees a five year period for the operation and maintenance of the systems vehicles,” Kobayashi wrote. “But the $574 million only covers the construction cost of 80 train cars, as well as providing power and communications for the system, and does not provide for O&M funds for the five year period.”
So what’s the real cost of the possible deal with Ansaldo? Here’s what the city’s chief rail planner, Toru Hamayasu told us in an e-mail.
“$339,056,303 (is) the cost of the first 5 years full operation,” Hamayasu wrote.
Add that figure to the $574 million for the initial “core systems contract,” and the city would be paying the company a total of about $913 million.
Read the full story.
Catch Up on This Month’s Inside Honolulu
March 28, 2011: City Council advances bill to end recycling subsidy; City “getting robbed” by state; Tsunami plan “needs improvement.”
March 23, 2011: Gov. Neil Abercrombie makes a quick exit; Federal, state, city officials cheer rail project.
March 22, 2011: TAT grab deferred; Third boiler one year from completion; Furloughs still possible.
March 21, 2011: Honolulu awards two new rail contracts; All four mayors talk labor; Firefighters get boisterous at City Hall; City Council continues budget briefings.
March 17, 2011: City Council questions necessity of long-planned bond float for rail; Lengthy executive sessions moves rail talks behind closed doors; Aging bus fleet, city workers.
March 16, 2011: City Council tables transit resolution; City Council members slam administration’s proposed fuel hike.
March 15, 2011: City Council member Ann Kobayashi tips off rail opponents to try to change City Council member Ikaika Anderson‘s mind; Rail arguments to continue in court next week; City Council members get an extension on HART nominations.
March 15, 2011: Honolulu spends $900 million on booze; Santa Claus moves to Pearl City; Mayor Peter Carlisle takes a 15 percent pay cut.
March 10, 2011: Landfill site-selection committee meets for third time, loses two members; HECO provides generators to family center; Like Honolulu, other cities and state grapple with spending on rail.
March 9, 2011: City’s rail groundbreaking ceremony costs about $30,000, consistent with Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s estimate.
March 8, 2011: HART seeks $21 million in first budgetl; City IT Director Gordon Bruce works out kinks on new budget website; City gives HPD 9,000 hours in legal defense in two years; City moves forward with compost facility in Waialua; Could Honolulu ask residents to pay-to-play?
March 7, 2011: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle says he doesn’t want a raise; Salary Commission recommends bump in pay for vacant medical examiner job; Tom Berg‘s chief of staff blasts HECO.
March 4, 2011: Landfill channel not designed to handle rainfall equivalent to storm that caused near-catastrophe; Six City Council members out of town.
March 3, 2011: Line-by-line budget to go online in about a week; Five City Council members are D.C.-bound.
March 2, 2011: Mayor Peter Carlisle raises taxes, fees in first budget; More money for autopsies; Liquor commish nominee Wesley Fong talks commission image issues; TheBus turns 40; Ides of March deadline for City Council’s HART nominees.
March 1, 2011: City Council member Breene Harimoto worries about bandaid approach to homelessness; Planning Committee advances North Shore communities plan; Parks and Rec eyes new dog park; Tom Berg pitches Matson containers as possible living space.
