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Hot topics at Honolulu Hale this week include a subsidy for local recycling companies — council members voted to end it Wednesday, with a catch — the storage of fireworks on Oahu, and where to put the next city landfill.

The mayor’s landfill site-selection committee is meeting this morning (check out ). Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.

Last of Hawaiian Waste Trash Finally Dumped

4:32 p.m.
A spokesman for the Environmental Services Department issued a statement saying the last of the waste — 11 tons — that was once meant to be shipped off island has finally been removed from Campbell Industrial Park this week. In all, nearly 15 tons went to H-POWER, and 54 tons went to Waimanalo Gulch (including 49 tons of E-waste).

The company Hawaiian Waste Systems’ plan to ship trash to the Washington fell apart when they couldn’t get proper permits amid protests against the plan in Washington. Some City Council members have complained about the city’s willingness to pay for disposal of the waste at Waimanalo Gulch, instead of requiring Hawaiian Waste Systems to do so.

Even after a fire destroyed the warehouse containing the trash, it stayed there for months before officials got rid of it.

All Honolulu Rail Cars, Buses To Get Electronic Counters

1:15 p.m.
In a rail briefing before the City Council Transportation Committee this afternoon, Chairman Breene Harimoto asked rail planners how they plan to count the people who hop on and off the rail line, since there won’t be turnstiles.

Rail planners say there will be electronic sensors that can count bodies moving on and off. Transportation Services Director Wayne Yoshioka says some city buses already have the technology.

“All of our new buses have them,” Yoshioka said. “Eventually, all of our buses will have the same kind of counters.”

Rail Lawsuit Searchable

1 p.m.

Want to pick apart the lawsuit yourself? and comb through the complaint for the pieces that interest you most. Just .

Romy Cachola Learns New Slang

11:09 a.m.
When a member of the public gave City Council members long testimony about his belief that the Honolulu rail project is “ass backwards,” City Council member Romy Cachola took interest.

“What’s the term you used, ass back? Is it ass back?”

The man laughed, and told Cachola he could just go with

Brookings Institute Lauds Honolulu Mass Transit

10:55 a.m.
The Brookings Institute issued a survey today, ranking Honolulu as the best city for connecting workers to public transit.

Here are some of the survey’s key findings:

• 97 percent of Honolulu’s working-age residents live “near a transit stop” compared to a naverage of 69 percent among 100 cities surveyed.
• Those who use public transit in Honolulu wait 9 minutes during rush hour, compared to the average wait-time of more than 10 minutes.
• In Honolulu, 60 percent of jobs are accessible by mass transit, compared to the average of 30 percent.

Slater Briefs City Council on Lawsuit, Lawyer’s Expertise

10:34 a.m.

Cliff Slater is giving a press conference at 2 p.m. to detail the lawsuit he and others filed in federal court this morning. But Slater is first giving a sneak preview to City Council members.

At the crux of the case are complaints that the city and FTA failed to follow environmental laws, and violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Department of Transportation Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.

Slater went to California to find a top-tiered environmental lawyer (the city did, too), and he says Nicholas Yost not only knows the laws but actually wrote some of them.
“Our attorney Nicholas Yost wrote a lot of the rules that implement the federal government’s NEPA statutes and the historic preservation statutes as well,” Slater said. “He says this kind of project is exactly what the environmental laws were written to avoid.”

Buzz among anti-rail circles is that if any rail lawsuit has a chance of stopping or delaying the project, it’s this one. City officials continue to project confidence about their handling of the project.

Slater Slams Rail Financial Plan

10:27 a.m.
City Council members are taking testimony on the new rail financial plan before they begin asking their own questions of city rail planners.

Cliff Slater, who this morning filed a federal lawsuit against the project, expressed concern about what he sees as a profit-driven motivation from corporate consultants moving the project forward.

“The present management at the Department of Transportation Services, they’ve never built a railroad, they’ve never run a railroad,” Slater said. “They’re relying on Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Parsons Brinckerhoff has a huge amount of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, riding on this thing being built… I notice that they haven’t signed this financial plan, and I’d like to know why.”

Slater is one of Honolulu’s best-known rail critics. Read more about the lawsuit filed this morning.

Rail Lawsuit to Be Filed Today

9:13 a.m.
Cliff Slater, former Gov. Ben Cayetano and Sen. Sam Slom are today filing a lawsuit against the Honolulu rail project.

It comes a day after Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka remarked that there were no current suits against the city. The City Council yesterday approved spending more than $1 million in legal resources to protect the project.

Slater’s group, Honolulutraffic.com Inc., will announce details of the lawsuit in a press conference at 2 p.m. He told Civil Beat that the suit would challenge the city’s environmental assessment related to the project.

Read of Nick Yost, the San Francisco attorney representing the plaintiffs. Slater said he could not find someone with Yost’s level of expertise in Honolulu.

Council Members to Vet New Rail Financial Plan

7:22 a.m.
City Council members are gathering for a special Transportation and Transit Planning Committee meeting this morning. The single item on : Discussion of the latest financial plan for rail.

Council members rarely discuss rail without delving into financial territory, but after several days of discussing bond floats and the new budgets for HART, today marks the first time they’ll publicly go over the new plan.

Read Previous Editions of Inside Honolulu

May 11, 2011: Council advances rail bond bill; City Council Chairman Nestor Garcia waiting for word on ethics investigation; Council advances fireworks storage bill; Council scraps scrap-yard subsidy, kind of; Rail lawsuit to be filed soon.

May 10, 2011 Council member Tom Berg wants to move Honolulu Zoo into Diamond Head crater; Council to consider banning some cell phone use for pedestrians.

May 9, 2011: After heavy rains, Waimanalo Gulch gets extension; What happens in Copenhagen, stays in Copenhagen?; Feds monitoring city’s use of housing money.

May 6, 2011: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle says Koolau Loa plan keeps “country country,” too; City Council’s Tulsi Gabbard gets promoted.

May 5, 2011: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle heads to sunny East Lansing, Mich.; Emergency Management Deputy Peter Hirai clears up rumor about Waikiki sires; Double the turnout so far in Neighborhood Board elections.

May 4, 2011: City Council advances HART budgets, measure to float rail bonds; Romy Cachola irked that no Filipinos appointed to HART; Mayor would likely support end to recycling subsidy.

May 3, 2011: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle signed into law new North Shore plan; City Planning and Permitting Director David Tanoue questions move to turn shipping containers into homes; Environmental group raises concerns about trees along rail route.

May 2, 2011: City Council member Stanley Chang takes on managing director; Ann Kobayashi defends yelling at testifier; Romy Cachola calls testifier “stupid;” Tom Berg proposes horse racetrack for Kapiolani Park; Bill to eliminate scrap yard subsidy advances; Council member miffed that rail leaders skipped special council meeting.