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Overriding the mayor’s vetoes is on the agenda for a special City Council meeting today, and discussion is sure to be intense.

Council members will sound off on the debate over a new transit agency, their reasons for wanting to keep a recycling subsidy that has been called “corporate welfare,” and why they want general-fund money back for early rail expenditures.

There’s always something interesting going on at Honolulu Hale.

Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.

Kalihi Weighs In On Transit Development

7:56 p.m.
The train is only part of the equation. The real impact to Honolulu residents comes down to planning.

So-called “Transit Oriented Development” will shape the future of the neighborhoods near the 20-mile rail route. The city’s march eastward reached Kalihi tonight.

A few dozen area residents showed up at Kalakaua Middle School to share their vision of the future. Where do the high-rise apartments go? What about stores? How can the region be designed so that cars are unnecessary?

“It’s hard for people to envision the future,” said Jiro Sumada, deputy director of the Department of Planning and Permitting. “You get to refine your own idea after listening to other people and hopefully everything comes out … and you get an even better idea than any one person could come up with by having more input, and that’s the whole process.”

A planning consultant will take the ideas put forward tonight and put forward a number of proposed zoning maps in a couple of months. From that, the community and then the administration will come up with a final plan for the Kalihi area. Only after Council approval will the plan be official, and only after that will transit-friendly development and redevelopment of privately-owned properties be possible.

The city’s chief TOD planner, Kathy Sokugawa, said it could be 20, 30 or 40 years before the process started Monday night reaches a conclusion. But smart growth seen near other transit projects, like the lines branching out from Washington, D.C., doesn’t happen overnight.

Wayne Yoshioka, the city’s transportation chief, attended even though DPP is taking the lead on TOD. He said everything is interconnected when it comes to transportation issues.

The tour’s next stop is Tuesday night at the Hawaii Community Development Authority office on Cooke Street.

AG Looking Into Council Override

3:57 p.m.
City Council members acknowledged they were ignoring advice from the state attorney general when they passed , which seeks to recoup city money spent on rail before a taxpayer-funded transit fund was created.

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle cited the AG’s opinion when he vetoed Bill 35. Council members unanimously overrode Carlisle’s veto in a special council meeting this morning.

“We are aware of the council’s actions,” said Joshua Wisch, special assistant to the attorney general, told Civil Beat. “We’re taking a look into it.”

Council Overrides Mayor’s HART Vetoes

11:40 a.m.
The Honolulu City Council is standing its ground in the dispute with Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle over the council’s role in determining the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s budget.

Council members were unanimous in their vote to override Carlisle’s veto of the council’s version of the HART spending plan. Both the mayor and City Council members have said they’re willing to take this fight to court.

City Council member Ikaika Anderson said he felt it was the duty of the council to override Carlisle’s veto in order to maintain council oversight of money spent on rail. He said the council’s attempts to compromise with the administration — like removing certain provisos at the request of the administration — were rejected.

“It seems that this administration is more interested in confrontation rather than compromise,” Anderson said. “And this confrontation is going to cause, has the potential to cause… the waste of even more tax dollars.”

Carlisle says city lawyers will refuse to sign off on the council’s HART budgets, which he calls legally flawed.

“I know the mayor points out that he has legal opinions that renders his position with regards to sustaining his veto,” Martin said to his colleagues during the meeting. “We have our own legal opinion to the contrary that gives the council the authority.”

Martin said he still hoped to be able to avoid a “costly legal battle.” If the matter is to be settled in court, the city’s lawyers would represent both the mayor and the City Council. The city’s top lawyer, Carrie Okinaga, will leave her job as Corporation Counsel June 30. She officially starts her work as a HART board member, a volunteer position, the next day.

Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s office announced he will hold a press conference to offer responses to the council’s overrides after the meeting ends. Carlisle has gone a media blitz in the past week, sharing his views on HART on television and in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The newspaper’s editorial board has sided with Carlisle on the issue.

“The mayor, as recently as Friday or Thursday of last week appeared on TV, pointed to a Star-Advertiser editorial to support his position, which I found very amusing,” Martin said. “Only because that editorial was basically a reprint, verbatim, of the mayor’s veto letter to the council.”

Read the full story.

Council Uses Override Power to Save Money for Private Scrap Yard

11:04 a.m.
In a 6-3 vote, City Council members opted to keep a subsidy in place that saves one Oregon-based scrap-yard about $2 million per year in fees it would otherwise pay. The subsidy gives recycling companies a discount on tipping fees they pay when they dump non-recyclable residue in the city landfill.

The council vote is the latest in a long debate over the subsidy, which council members approved eliminating last month.

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle last week vetoed Bill 36, which would reinstate the subsidy.

“I’ve always favored a gradual reduction rather than an immediate reduction,” Budget Chairman Ernie Martin said, asking his colleagues to join him in overriding the veto.

The following City Council members voted to override Carlisle’s veto, and keep the subsidy intact: Ann Kobayashi, Tulsi Gabbard, Stanley Chang, Ernie Martin, Romy Cachola and Ikaika Anderson.

City Council members Tom Berg, Nestor Garcia and Breene Harimoto voted against the override, arguing that the subsidy should be eliminated.

“Are you aware how profitable the company is?” City Council Chairman Nestor Garcia said to Environmental Services Director Tim Steinberger during the hearing. “You should invest in their stock. They’re doing very well.”

Catch up on some of our previous coverage of the debate over this subsidy:

• Honolulu Mayor Kills Recycling Subsidy — Again June 21, 2011

• Honolulu Council: Scrap-Yard Subsidy Reinstated June 3, 2011

• Honolulu Mayor Signs Bill Ending Recycling Subsidy May 31, 2011

• End to Scrap Yard Passes — With a Catch May 11, 2011

• Former GM: Scrap Yard Doesn’t Need Subsidy March 24, 2011

Where’s the Aloha Shirt, Ernie Martin?

10:22 a.m.
We can’t help but notice that likely incoming City Council Chairman Ernie Martin switched out his trademark aloha-shirt style for a suit today. Martin is known for playfully razzing colleagues when they show up to committee meetings in jackets and ties.

Council members, including Martin, tend to dress up for full council meetings. Today — the day he’s expected to take over as council chairman — seems as good a reason as any to class it up.

Council Still Wants Rail Reimbursement

10:19 a.m.
City Council members aren’t giving up their fight to get reimbursed for city spending on rail in the earliest phases of the project.

They unanimously voted to override Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s veto of which would enable the city to recoup money spent on rail before the transit fund was created through a GET surcharge.

Carlisle said he vetoed this bill based on an opinion from the state attorney general, who said it “would be contrary to state law.”

“Fundamentally, I am not at liberty to disregard the Attorney General’s opinion on this question of state law,” Carlisle wrote in an explanation of the decision.

The attorney general could not be reached for comment about the veto override Monday morning.

City Council Moving Day on Wednesday

10:05 a.m.
City Council member Nestor Garcia told Civil Beat that onlookers at today’s special City Council meeting can expect “a nice speech” from him as he turns over chairmanship to Ernie Martin. The power change will be official this morning if City Council members approve a resolution making Martin chairman.

Once he is chairman, Martin will send a memo stipulating new committee leadership positions. 
Asked if he might take Martin’s position as Budget chair, a post Garcia has held twice in the past, Garcia shook his head.

“God no,” Garcia said with a laugh. “Those long meetings!”

Garcia says he does not know who will take various committee leaderships positions, but says City Council members are already planning to switch offices on Wednesday.

Water Panel to Consider Rail Plans

9:55 a.m.
The rail transit project’s impacts on land have been much-discussed — everything from transit-oriented development to eminent domain. The impact on water resources hasn’t been as fleshed out.

That could change Wednesday, when the state’s Commission on Water Resource Management takes up an application from the city to alter four streams along the rail route.

Among the impacts are station columns within stream channels. View [pdf] and [pdf] for more details.

Djou on HART Dispute: Administration is ‘Wrong’

7:05 a.m.
City Council members this morning will decide whether to override Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s veto of their version of a budget for the new Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.

Over the weekend, Inside Honolulu caught up with former City Council member Charles Djou, who backs the council’s interpretation of the charter amendment that led to HART’s creation. First a little background.

Council members have pointed to this section of the charter question in exerting their authority over HART’s budget: “The council shall, with or without amendments, approve the authority’s appropriation requests.”

Managing Director Doug Chin told us last week that the word “appropriations” was key, because an earlier draft of the resolution that decided the charter amendment language had referred to “operating budget” and “capital budget” instead of “appropriations.” Thus, Chin argues, “appropriations” refers only to general fund money.

Chin’s interpretation means HART would not need approval on how its budget uses federal grants, or money from the taxpayer-funded transit fund. Instead, the new agency would only get council approval when asking for extra money from the city’s general fund.

Here’s what Djou said, in an email to Civil Beat, about the managing director’s take:

“MD Chin is wrong. I was chairman of the Executive Matters Committee that passed out the charter amendment that was placed on the ballot. There was absolutely no misunderstanding whatsoever that the language you cite means the City Council retains final authority over HART. I was specifically concerned that HART would become a rouge and unaccountable agency like BWS. I specifically wanted to make sure that HART remained subject to City Council oversight and that is exactly why that particular phrase was included. The original draft language of the bill was very clear, but as a compromise, I accepted an amendment by Donovan Dela Cruz.

Dela Cruz’s amendment was more vague, but he never intended to change the city council excercising final say on all HART spending matters. Indeed, I beleive the language of the amendment says that HART only has authority to ‘submit’ a budget. The final say on all appropriations rests with the city council.”

Djou says he believes that extracting the City Council from oversight of HART’s spending would be a “big mistake” that would “grossly undermine confidence in the rail project.”

What do you think?

Read Previous Editions of Inside Honolulu

June 24, 2011: HART wasting no time in first meeting agenda; Fourteen bills become law; Friends of the Queen Theater still want to see it revamped.

June 23, 2011: Last day for fireworks permit; Doug Chin hopeful lawsuit could be avoided; Last Furlough Friday?

June 22, 2011: Mayor deliberately keeps quiet on Asia trip; Veto override votes set for Monday; Ernie Martin breaks silence on council shake-up.

June 21, 2011: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle vetoes bills; City Council member Tulsi Gabbard writes from Indonesia; Hoopili fight heating up (again).

June 20, 2011: Ethics training could be required for all city workers; Stanley Chang, mayor, back from China; Ag property-tax tweak advances; Council Budget Committee advances bond float.

June 17, 2011: City Council member Tom Berg wants commercial activity at some parks; Baby warthogs at the zoo.

June 16, 2011: Perennial mayoral candidate Panos Prevedouros‘ poetry; Opinion on Garcia ethics investigation still two months out.

June 15, 2011:: Council Chairman Nestor Garcia steps down; City offers amnesty on turned-in fireworks.

June 14, 2011: Photos released from Peter Carlisle‘s Asia trip; Carpenters Union steps up rail advocacy; Water outage on windward side.

June 13, 2011: Read the complete HUD report; Tom Berg to hold town hall on rail; Still no rail report from fact-finding trip.

June 8, 2011: Acting Mayor Doug Chin signs historic homes bill; FAA issues Record of Decision on rail; Hillary Clinton to attend APEC; Stanley Chang posts messages to Twitter from Taiwan; Precedent in the dispute between Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle and City Council members.

June 7, 2011: Two-time candidate Panos Prevedouros fundraising for 2012 mayor’s race; Tom Berg weighs in on chief of staff’s role in hacking of lawmaker’s email; Rod Tam sentencing pushed back; Ship that buried Osama bin Laden stops in Honolulu.

June 6, 2011:Creator of city rail poll says it was unbiased; More details on Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s China trip; Former City Council memeber Rod Tam charged with eight counts of campaign spending violations.

June 3, 2011: City Council approves rail bond float, slew of fee increases, property-tax rate hike, operating and capital budgets; Council members reverse decision on eliminating subsidy to scrap yards.

June 2, 2011: Complete script of questions from city rail poll; Rail supporters plan virtual sit-in.

June 1, 2011: City announced poll showing majority support for rail; Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle mum on veto plans; Hurricane season starts.