HART Board Takes Testimony About Embattled Rail CEO Behind Closed Doors
The board says it will decide at its next meeting in two weeks what to do about Lori Kahikina’s soon-to-expire contract.
Members of the board of directors for the Honolulu rail authority heard both public and secret testimony Friday on whether the board should retain rail CEO Lori Kahikina after her current contract expires at the end of this year.
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi is supporting a multi-year contract extension for Kahikina, but she has been the subject of two critical performance evaluations by the board of directors of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation in the past two years.
Kahikina has also clashed with a key board member. She publicly complained she was a victim of workplace bullying after board chair Colleen Hanabusa raised her voice in an April meeting during a heated discussion of the abrupt resignation of a key member of the HART staff.
Hanabusa disclosed publicly Friday that she requested that the city Department of Human Resources investigate Kahikina’s allegation of bullying. “I take very seriously how Lori felt,” Hanabusa said.
She described that as “self reporting,” saying that whenever issues come up regarding ethics or similar controversies, she expects officials including her to seek an outside ruling on the matter.
The board is responsible for hiring and firing the chief executive officer, and those recent events have called into question whether Kahikina will continue on with the rail project after her current contract ends.
On Friday she received public support from the likes of Hawaii housing developer Stanford Carr, Hawaii Community Foundation President Micah Kane and Brennon Morioka, who is dean of the University of Hawaii Manoa College of Engineering.
She was also backed by executives with rail contractors Frank V. Coluccio Construction Co. and Nan Inc., which both have contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to relocate urban Honolulu utilities in the path of rail construction.
Franco Coluccio, owner of the construction company founded by his father, described Kahikina in written testimony as “an excellent representative for your organization. I admire her management style and respect the way she advocates for the City.”
Kane said in written testimony that, under Kahikina’s leadership, rail has established “a higher degree of public credibility.”
“I firmly believe it is in the best Interest of the City and County of HonoluIu that Ms. Kahiklna remain in the position of Executive Director and CEO of HART,” he wrote.
Supporters note that during Kahikina’s tenure the rail project has reached milestones such as the beginning of rail service to the public over a portion of the line, and winning the approval of the Federal Transit Administration for a new recovery plan and Full Funding Grant Agreement for the project.
HART’s Human Resources Committee then went into a closed-door executive session where board members heard from 10 current and previous HART employees. It was unclear if those people, who were not publicly identified, testified in support or opposition to a new contract for Kahikina.
Committee Chairwoman Michele Chun Brunngraber said after the session the 10 were allowed to offer their opinions in executive session because they “invoked their privacy rights.”
Committee members then voted to present all of Friday’s testimony to the full HART board at the next board meeting scheduled for June 21, and then decide how to proceed with Kahikina’s contract.
Brunngraber said the testimony from the 10 people who spoke privately on Friday would be reviewed by the full board in executive session.
Ben Creps, urged members of the HART board to consider whether the debate over Kahikina’s contract should be held in public.
He cited a that held that personnel matters are to be discussed in executive session only when a constitutionally protected privacy interest is involved. If there is no such interest involved, the board can hold that discussion in open session, he said.
“Given the person at issue, which is a high-level government official, and the topic of discussion — her job performance and contract renewal — our view is that the law requires most if not all of that discussion to be held openly,” Creps said.
He also said the state Sunshine Law governing public meetings does not ever require the board to hold a closed session. “You always have the discretion to be more open,” Creps said.
