Kahikina Poised To Get $25K Bonus For First Year As Rail Director
HART board members contemplated what message that bonus might send to the public, however, as rail faces a severe financial crisis.
Honolulu rail board members gave a preliminary nod Thursday to a $25,000 bonus for the transit project’s executive director, Lori Kahikina, based on her first year on the job.
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s Human Resources Committee voted 3-1 to approve that bonus. Lynn McCrory, the committee’s chairwoman; Roger Morton, the city’s transportation director; and Anthony Aalto voted in favor. Kika Bukoski voted against it. Art Tolentino, who attended his first meeting as a board member Thursday after being appointed last week by Mayor Rick Blangiardi, abstained.
The full HART board must vote to approve the bonus at a future meeting before it can take effect.
The HR committee discussed Kahikina’s quarterly and annual job performance for about an hour in private before emerging to vote in public. Bukoski said he was placed “in a very difficult position” because he appreciates Kahikina’s work. Nonetheless, “I can’t in all fiduciary (capacity) support a bonus at this time” based on the rail project’s latest, severe financial problems.
As things stand, HART estimates that the state’s largest-ever infrastructure project will cost some to complete as far as Ala Moana Center. Meanwhile, the local rail agency estimates that it’s on course to collect some for that construction effort. Those revenues include some $400 million from the city’s new transient accommodations tax through 2031. Still, that’s far short of the funding needed to complete all 20 miles and 21 stations.
Aalto also raised the question of what message a director’s bonus would send to the public amid rail’s deep financial problems. Strictly from a human resources perspective, there’s “no question that she deserves it,” Aalto said of the bonus. He added that he’s willing to support it “at this point,” leaving it unclear whether he would continue his support when the full board votes.
McCrory, meanwhile, said that Kahikina’s restructuring and streamlining of HART during her first year — reducing total rail staff by nearly half — has vastly improved the project’s management. Prior to her hiring there were “way too many people, way too many issues,” McCrory said.
Kahikina earns a $275,000 base annual salary — more than what the mayor earns but less than the $317,000 earned by her predecessor at HART, Andrew Robbins.
Kahikina and Morton accompanied Blangiardi to Washington, D.C., this week to discuss the status of the rail project with Federal Transit Administration officials.
Kahikina briefly participated by live video in an earlier committee meeting on Thursday, and she reaffirmed that the goal is to build rail to Ala Moana. That goal remains dubious, however, given the project’s latest financial hardships. The FTA has given HART and city officials a June 30 deadline to provide a new recovery plan that details how they intend to deal with the funding shortfall.
Robbins, who led HART for three years, received a partial bonus of $10,000 for his first year on the job. The board opted not to renew his contract in 2020 to stay on the job.
In 2015, when rail faced a previous budget gap of some $910 million, HART’s then-director, Dan Grabauskas, asked the board to forgo considering the $35,000 bonus for which he was eligible.
“Now simply is not the time” for the board to consider a bonus, in an April 2015 letter.
More Cash Going To AECOM For Design Work
Also on Thursday, HART board members gave preliminary approval to nearly $16 million in design-related change orders for future utility relocation for rail past Middle Street. Some $3.8 million of that money will go toward the so-called “mauka shift” — a strategy to move the elevated guideline slightly inland along Dillingham Boulevard as the route passes Honolulu Community College.
Overall, HART says it expects to save more than $150 million in construction costs by making that change.
The remaining $11.8 million approved Thursday will be reserved for design services needed during construction, when crews encounter unexpected issues in the field, according to , a program manager at HART.
All of that money will go to AECOM, which has been working on utility relocation designs for HART since 2012. Amid the project’s various pauses, changes and stumbles, AECOM has seen its contract value for that work go from nearly $44 million to nearly $70 million, according to a .
HART board members have previously been wary of the rising costs to that design work.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 make us all collectively look very good,鈥 Wes Frysztacki, then the city鈥檚 transportation services director and a HART board member, said of the AECOM costs in 2020. 鈥淚t looks like we鈥檝e had a lot of false starts and change of direction.鈥
