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

Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.

6:12 p.m. Details On The Plan

The full Civil Beat story on the lone surviving redistricting proposal is up on the site now. Read it here.

4:37 p.m. ‘Modified Existing Plan’ It Is

The Honolulu Council Reapportionment Commission has charted its course, and soon it’ll be asking for public input.

The panel just minutes ago narrowed down the four available proposals to one — the so-called “Modified Existing Plan” — and it won’t make any changes until after public hearings.

More details on the proposal that survived — and those that didn’t — coming soon.

2:59 p.m. Bombardier’s Response

No sooner did we click the “publish” button on the previous post than Bombardier responded to the news of the lawsuit’s dismissal.

A spokesman provided the following statement to Inside Honolulu on behalf of Bombardier Vice President Andy Robbins:

Bombardier is disappointed in the ruling by the Circuit Court and frustrated because we believe that the Hawaii Procurement law supports our case.

The Court ruling was largely on procedural grounds which, once again, does not afford Bombardier an opportunity to provide evidence or testimony to explain what really transpired over the course of this multi-year procurement of the Core Systems.

It is a shame that the Bombardier proposal was discarded and not even considered by the City as it represented the lowest total price and the highest technical and management scores and thereby would have served taxpayers and future rail passengers well.

We have not yet made any decisions regarding a further appeal of this ruling to the Hawaii Appellate Court.

2:53 p.m. Bombardier Lawsuit Denied

This just in: A court has rejected the appeal filed by Bombardier seeking to overturn the award of the core systems contract to Ansaldo, according to the city.

In a press release put out this afternoon, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation said a Circuit Court judge ruled that the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs hearings officer correctly decided that the city did conduct meaningful discussions with Bombardier about the deficiency in its proposal, as required by law.

(Inside Honolulu has not yet reviewed the ruling, so is sharing the city’s perspective at this time. We have reached out to Bombardier for comment.)

Read the full press release here:

12:47 p.m. Berg: Reverse Ansaldo Contract

The fight over the $1.4 billion core systems rail contract has already made its way from the city’s procurement office to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and now to the courthouse. But it’s also right back where it started: Honolulu Hale.

Anti-rail Honolulu City Council member Tom Berg last week introduced a resolution urging Mayor Peter Carlisle and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to rescind its award to Ansaldo by either upholding protests from losing bidders Sumitomo and Bombardier or by calling for new bids.

The resolution’s “Whereas” clauses borrow liberally from claims made by Bombardier and Sumitomo against Ansaldo regarding financial stability and past performance. Berg says Ansaldo will cost Honolulu taxpayers more in the long run, and won’t create as many local jobs.

Read the resolution here:

11:04 a.m. Sister Cities Program

We asked the city for a more detailed schedule for the big Counties of Hawaii Sister-Cities Summit starting tonight, and it has obliged.

The four-page program includes a trio of receptions and a welcome dinner tonight at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

The main event, tomorrow at the Hawaii Convention Center, will allow every participant to share information about opportunities in their city. Honolulu City Council member Stanley Chang and Honolulu Office of Economic Development Director Ann Chung will moderate the one-hour event.

After lunch and the signing of four new sister-city agreements, eight cities will present clean energy technologies and strategies. Council member Tulsi Gabbard will moderate.

A third session, titled “APEC Update and Doing Business in China,” will feature Council member Nestor Garcia and representatives of the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

The summit will close with another reception and then a farewell breakfast.

View the program here:

10:40 a.m. Going After Castro

Tucked into Friday’s Honolulu City Council is to initiate legal action to collect restitution owed to the city by Manuel Castro.

Astute Civil Beat readers will recognize that name, as Castro is serving jail time for running an overtime scam in which he’d assign unearned hours to employees, without their knowledge, and then ask for kickbacks. Nanea Kalani interviewed one of the former employees earlier this year and published this story: Fired Honolulu Employee: Lax Oversight Led to Overtime ‘Free-for-All’

When Castro was sentenced in January, he was ordered to pay back $19,505.64 at the rate of at least $500 per month. The resolution says the entire amount “continues to remain due.”

10:13 a.m. Godbey’s Disclosures

Last month, we took a look at the financial disclosure from Honolulu’s most powerful government officials, and came up with some interesting findings for a story titled Full Disclosure: Mayor Peter Carlisle’s Cabinet.

One of the filings missing from that story was Corporation Counsel Bob Godbey, who had not yet been confirmed. Now he’s been sworn in, and he’s filed a disclosure form of his own. The interesting details:

• Godbey made between $100,000 and $149,999 last year at his law firm, Godbey Griffiths. He owns a 50 percent stake, which he valued at between $50,000 and $99,999.
• Godbey’s wife, Ellen Godbey Carson, is also an attorney and earned between $200,000 and $299,999 as a director of the major Honolulu law firm Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, of which she owns a 6.25 percent stake. In a in June, Godbey explained that his wife’s firm “does not do business with the City but does represent parties adverse to the City.”
• Godbey’s wife also has a lead role in the Legacy of Life nonprofit, which works to save lives by recovering organs and tissues for transplants, according to . She receives no compensation for her work.
• The couple jointly owns two pieces of property together valued at between $1 million and $1.2 million.

View the document here:

8:51 a.m. Wrong Again On Jobs

Four prominent rail opponents are unhappy with another Civil Beat Fact Check, saying that we focused on the minutiae of their half-true claim about the city’s inability or refusal to identify jobs created by the rail project.

“We think Civil Beat’s analysis amounts to quibbling over the placement of the knives, forks, and spoons at a table on which sits an elephant nearly the size of an aircraft carrier,” Walter Heen, Randy Roth, Ben Cayetano and Cliff Slater write today.

Read the full response here.

7:28 a.m. Real Property Tax Commission Meets Today

The city’s Real Property Tax Advisory Commission is set to meet today at 12:30 p.m. Among the items are a presentation on tax relief and a discussion of “good tax policy.”

Friday’s Council Agenda

for Friday’s meeting of the Honolulu City Council appeared online late Monday. Among the many pro forma items are the following juicy bits:

• , regulating the size and number of political signs on private property.
• , approving a hotel complex in Laie. (Opponents have already circulated a , which has 64 “signatures” as of this moment.)
• , approving a 15-year master plan for Queen’s Hospital.
• , approving a fifth wet sludge storage tank at Sand Island.
• , urging the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to establish a program installing artwork in train stations.
• Public hearing on , authorizing the use of additional temporary surveillance cameras during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.

Where’s Carlisle?

At 6 p.m. today, Mayor Peter Carlisle delivers remarks at a welcoming reception for the Inaugural Hawaii Counties Sister-Cities Summit, which brings together sister city partners from around the world. The welcome dinner is at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

Read Previous Editions of Inside Honolulu

September 12: City Asks for Early Decision on Rail Lawsuit; Ethics Commission Today; Where’s Carlisle?

September 9: Carlisle’s Public Sked; Remembrance Walk; Congestion Deception; ‘Outrage’ on Mayor’s Homeless Comments; Successful Sewage Trucking; Where’s Carlisle?

September 8: What We Learned; Honolulu’s Lousy Traffic; Undercover in Washington; Eagles Have Landed; Corp Counsel on Procurement; Horner Impressed; Stanley Chang Testifies; Aloha From Italy; Sale Or No Sale, Finmeccanica Is Obliged; Joint and Several Liability; Finmeccanica: Failure ‘Impossible’; The Questions; The Players; Ansaldo On The Big Screen; Where’s Carlisle?

September 7: Four Council District Plans; The Resignation Letter; Jamila Resigns From Planning Commission; Thoughts on Washington Trip; Not Following Rules; Where’s Carlisle?

September 6: Thursday Night In Waianae; Council Public Hearing Notice; Mayor On Homelessness; Jobs Claim Half True; Where’s Carlisle?

September 2: Peter, Toru, Carrie All Washington-Bound; Carlisle’s Public Sked; HART at First Hawaiian; Carlisle at Civil Beat; Ansaldo: We Complied With Licensing Requirement; Long Weekend; Civil Beat’s ‘Hatchet Job’; Where’s Carlisle?

September 1: PIG Picks Bunda; Carlisle’s Rail Pep Talk; Semi-Autonomous, But Connected; All Sewage Ideas Welcome; Defining ‘Undercover’; Today’s Meetings; Where’s Carlisle?