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

Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.

4:43 p.m. Bombardier Extends Offer, Too

Last week Civil Beat reported that losing rail bidder Sumitomo had been asked by the city to extend its offer for 30 days while Ansaldo‘s finances go under the microscope. Now, Bombardier has extended its offer too.

In a letter sent directly to members of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Board of Directors Wednesday, Bombardier Vice President Andy Robbins explained the rationale for his company’s appeal to court and tried to make clear that the company supports rail and has done so since first making an offer back in 1991.

Robbins also said his company has waived the “condition” that led to it being disqualified from contention.

“The Honolulu Rail project is too important to the future of the City not to be done right,” Robbins wrote. “The HART Board of Directors has the chance now to make this right, restore public trust in the process and act in the interests of the taxpayers.”

Read the full letter here:

11:54 a.m. Steinberger: No Landfill Cleanup Invoice … Yet

City Environmental Services Director Tim Steinberger says the city has not yet received an invoice from Waste Management Hawaii for cleanup operations at Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill after January’s spill. But at some point, he expects, one will be coming.

Civil Beat reported today that Waste Management told the Environmental Protection Agency that it had spent more than $2.2 million with contractors. That figure doesn’t include internal costs like labor, Hawaii general excise tax or “markup” by Waste Management.

Steinberger said it’s not unusual for companies to tack on a “markup” for third-party costs, but that the city will review the invoice as it does for all invoices. If it does not object to the line items, the city will pay the bill. If it has objections, it will dispute the charges.

Steinberger said the city hasn’t come up with any specific projections for what the cleanup might cost taxpayers, but said the city took steps during the operation to keep those costs down, knowing the city might have to write a check at the end of the day.

Environmental Services and the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services will be able to handle payment without further appropriations from the Honolulu City Council, Steinberger said.

10:32 a.m. When Kennedy Was Shot

Give Tom Berg credit. Even as his for a secondary access road for the Waianae Coast was going down in flames in committee, he was saying nice things about Budget Chair Ann Kobayashi.

Most people remember where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot, Berg said, but he remembers where he was when Kobayashi and then-Council member Barbara Marshall tried to fight the Hawaii Legislature a few years back over why the half-cent tax had to be used for rail and not for highways.

The rant was part of Berg’s plea to keep his bill alive. He said the state saw secondary access to the Waianae Coast as an emergency way back in 1967, but nothing has happened.

Waianae resident Bob Smith said his neighbors need a way out in the event of a natural disaster and asked Council members, “What’s the problem with building a road to save lives?”

Council members said they’re sympathetic to the needs of the Waianae community, but creating a special fund to fund one specific road isn’t the right way to get it done.

Berg’s bill would have dedicated 35 percent of the city’s fuel tax revenues for construction of the road. Budget Director Mike Hansen said that’s equivalent to $17.5 million annually and would necessitate one of the following draconian measures to make up the gap:

• The city could turn off all of the 40,000-plus streetlights islandwide
• The city could eliminate the entire traffic division of the Honolulu Police Department
• The city could eliminate its entire road maintenance program
• The city could raise the fuel tax from 16.5 cents to 25.5 cents per gallon
• The city could raise real property tax rates on residential taxpayers by 14 cents per $1,000 of assessed value

The city’s attorneys warned council members that creating a special fund would usurp the powers of the budget director and the mayor, and warned it would be contrary to of state law.

“It should not be done,” Deputy Corporation Counsel Amy Kondo said.

Romy Cachola said the bill sought to leapfrog the line of road projects and secure 100 percent of what Berg wants for his district — at the expense of everybody else in Honolulu.

Both Bill 49 and a proposed set of amendments that would have removed the specific reference to the Waianae Coast were deferred indefinitely.

Another False Rail Claim

Elsewhere on Civil Beat today, Sophie Cocke looked at how Hawaii’s environmental groups feel about rail, and determined that opponents’ claim that “virtually all” oppose the project is false. Read the Fact Check here:

FACT CHECK — Rail Opponents: Environmental Groups Oppose Heavy Rail

That makes one true and two false fact checks from critics’ recent op-ed in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, with four still in progress. Updates coming soon.

Today’s Meetings

Here are the agendas for the two Honolulu City Council committee meetings today:

• 9 a.m. —
• 1 p.m. —

Where’s Carlisle?

At 8 a.m., Mayor Peter Carlisle delivers remarks at the 4th Annual Hawaii Conference on Language Access at the Hawaii Imin International Conference Center, East-West Center. Then at 4:45 p.m., Carlisle delivers remarks at the Agriculture in the City open market at the Neal Blaisdell Center grounds.

Kanu Hawaii will launch its third Eat Local Challenge at the latter event, which runs from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will be booths featuring chefs and farmers, creating dishes made with fresh local produce and proteins. Carlisle will make a special announcement about his participation in Eat Local 2011.

Read Previous Editions of Inside Honolulu

August 30: Art In Transit; Honoring Filipino Vets; You Talk Too Much; Star-Spangled Banner; ‘Harebrained’ Idea Nixed; Tulsi Announcement Today; Ten Stories High; Three Committees Today, And More; Where’s Carlisle?

August 29: September Is Sewage Month; Rail Media Blitz; I’m Peter, Not Mufi; Seven Fact Checks; Where’s Carlisle?

August 26: Carlisle’s Public Sked; PBN Now Anti-Rail; Code for America Picks Honolulu; Wednesday Meetings, Too; Tuesday Council Committee Agendas Out; Just In Case; Where’s Carlisle?

August 25: Senator to HART: ‘We’re Counting On You’; Inouye at HART Today; Mayor Catches Some Waves; Vacation Rental Plan In Limbo; Where’s Carlisle?

August 24: Rail Opponents Ask For Investigation; Gun Rights Group Sues HPD; Council Redistricting Today; Tales From Japan; Transient Accommodations Fight Continues; Where’s Carlisle?

August 23: Sumitomo Won’t Appeal; Honolulu’s Newest Apps; Three Added to Cabinet; Next Enterprise Services Director: Keoki Miyamoto; Search and Rescue; Queen of Waikiki Turns 110; Where’s Carlisle?

August 22: Anti-Rail Op-Ed, or Editorial?; Water Board Public Hearing Today; HUD Secretary Hawaii-Bound; Where’s Carlisle?

August 18: Carlisle’s Public Sked; Statehood Day; No Car, No Problem; HART ‘Comforted’ By Sumitomo Ruling; HART Meets Today; Pay Your Taxes; Where’s Carlisle?

August 17: Council Advances Campaign Sign Rules; $1 Million Settlement Approved; Mililani Senior Development Gets OK; Laie Hotel Deferred One Month; ‘You Got Shafted, I Got Shafted’; Council To Defer Laie Hotel Vote; HART to Ansaldo: Prove You Can Handle It; Council Sends Ag Property Tax Bill To Mayor; Godbey Confirmed As Corp Counsel; The ‘Million-Dollar Baby Toe’; Police Commission Agenda; HUD Not Happy With City’s ORI Report; Council Meeting Today; Sewage Trucking Begins; Where’s Carlisle?

August 16: Corp Counsel on Bombardier Suit; Bombardier’s Lawsuit; Tam Sentencing Delayed Again; Feds To Pay For Kolekole Pass Repair; Ethics Panel Waits on Travel Gift Policy; Rod Tam Sentencing; Newsmaker Interview Today; Where’s Carlisle?

August 15: Missouri Company Gets Sewer Contracts; Landfill Selection Meetings Postponed; Bombardier Appeals to FTA, Court; Busy Weekend for Rail; Questions for Yoshioka; Ethics Commission Today; Where’s Carlisle?

August 12: Feds’ Rail Lawsuit Response; Carlisle’s Public Sked; Council Agenda Published; Cabinet Gathers; Moku on HUD Meeting; Transportation Newsmaker; Where’s Carlisle?

August 11: Horner Lays It Down; Mayor’s Math Problem; Capitol Moat Sewage; Council Chair on Commissioner’s Ethics Violation; HART Finance Committee to Meet; Where’s Carlisle?

August 10: Vacation Rentals Argument Not Over Yet; Quintal Retires, Quietly; Packed Auditorium; Beat the School Jam; Vacation Rentals on Planning Commission Agenda; Morning Reading; Where’s Carlisle?

August 9: Ethics Agenda Out; EPA Fines Pest Control Co.; Regulating B&Bs Not So Easy; Where’s Carlisle?

August 8: Bombardier on Appeal; Carlisle In Da Hale; Where’s City Oversight?; Police Department Names Names; Carlisle on Japan, in Video; Where’s Carlisle?

August 5: 6:51 p.m. Carlisle in Japan, in Photos; Bombardier Officially Rejected; Ansaldo Enlisted to Fix San Fran’s Light Rail Cars; Traffic Ticket Quota; Carlisle’s Public Sked; Ansaldo Honolulu “Pleased” With Finmeccanica Restructuring; Waianae’s Clean Water Award; Chair Garcia’s Checklist; Where’s Carlisle?

August 4: Congestion Tolls in Honolulu … Someday; HART Here, HART There; Zoning Appeals Board Appointments Advance; Committee Moves Sign Bill Forward; Moratorium Lifted on New Sewer Connections in Waimanalo; Free Speech vs. Open Space; Today’s Committees; Where’s Carlisle?

August 3: Board Defends Rate Hike; Appointee Asked About Water Rates; Tow Trucking Debated; Seniors, Disabled Ask for Help; ORI Discussion Coming Soon; Today’s Committees; Fewer Golfers, More Money; Chang’s Public Service; Where’s Carlisle?

August 2: Case Closed, Not Decided; City Rests, Ansaldo Satisfied; City Witness Rebuts Sumitomo; Ireland, Silva Like Merger; Talking Merger; No Competition for Carlisle; Berg: GOP “Party of the Skin Heads”; Today’s Committees; Want Train? Get Brains; Where’s Carlisle?

August 1: Across the Street?; Waipahu Board Backs Hoopili; Executive Session?; Ansaldo Responds; Rail Appeal Continues, With Questions Churning About Ansaldo; Sewage Spill in Kailua; Where’s Carlisle?