Lawmaker Rebuffed At DOE Meeting
The state representative was eventually allowed to observe the meeting with school officials and air-conditioning contractors.
A state lawmaker concerned about hot classrooms in his district was rebuffed when he tried to attend a meeting Thursday morning with school officials and contractors involved with聽an expedited $100 million air-conditioning聽project.
Matt LoPresti, a Democrat representing聽Ewa, Ewa Beach, Ewa Gentry, Ewa Villages, Hoakalei and Ocean Pointe on Oahu, was told he could not join the Department of Education meeting at McKinley High School, as it was聽private.
The representative was eventually allowed in but was not permitted to ask questions.
“For me personally, the聽situation聽was聽resolved, but I was rather shocked聽to be turned away聽like that,” he said. “It’s too important聽to the people聽in my district聽and the kids across the state to not have an elected official present if they want to help oversee this.”
LoPresti said he had been under the impression that Dan Carlson, the DOE’s assistant superintendent of facilities, had invited him to the meeting. But a DOE spokesman said聽that the invitation apparently聽was聽not followed through on.
The DOE’s Brent Suyama said the meeting involved representatives of 36聽qualified contractors, subcontractors and other companies for the AC project. The purpose聽was to clear up “some potential misconceptions regarding the project” on matters such as design.
As widely reported earlier聽this summer, the first bids for the project came in very high.
“We think we have some clarity on a bunch of the聽issues,” Suyama聽said of Thursday’s meeting.
Suyama said there are concerns about having a sitting lawmaker somehow involved in the state’s procurement process.
But LoPresti said that, while the procurement code is an “important way to maintain integrity for government contracts, this is a special situation and聽a special meeting where there is a lot of public questions about additional costs from contractors.”
The Hawaii Legislature and the governor approved the $100聽million聽appropriation for the AC projects earlier this year.
Hot classrooms have聽been a longstanding problem in many schools around the state.
