Rail CEO Kahikina Counters Criticism Made In Secret Testimony To The Rail Authority Board
Unnamed current and former employees of Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation alleged Kahikina created a toxic work environment, and berated employees.
Current and former employees of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation alleged in a closed-door meeting earlier this month that HART CEO Lori Kahikina created a work environment that is so toxic it affected the health of some employees.
Kahikina countered those claims this week with a seven-page rebuttal letter that responds to concerns raised by the 10 unnamed staffers or former employees. Kahikina’s letter was made public by the HART board of directors.
The staff complaints and Kahikina’s response are the latest outburst in an increasingly heated debate over Kahikina’s future with rail. Her three-year contract as the CEO for HART expires at the end of this year, and Kahikina wants a multi-year extension to allow her to continue to lead the project.
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi has urged the HART board to keep Kahikina on as CEO, and the board was scheduled to consider the matter Friday morning. However, Friday’s board meeting was canceled about an hour after its scheduled start time because the audio failed on the live feed of the meeting.
The 10 current and former HART employees testified or submitted written criticisms of Kahikina to the HART Human Relations Committee in a June 7 meeting that was closed to the public. The board has not identified Kahikina’s critics, or disclosed what they said.
But according to Kahikina’s rebuttal letter to the board, common themes among the testimonies criticizing her were she “has created, and continues to foster, a toxic work environment that has resulted in low morale and (is) affecting the health of some employees.”
Kahikina’s critics also alleged she “berated, intimidated and harassed employees, and blamed other employees for her own mistakes,” according to her summary of the comments.
According to Kahikina’s description of her critics’ testimony, “Many employees are afraid to tell Ms. Kahikina the truth, as they fear retaliation; she either does not hear/acknowledge negative feedback, or reacts disapprovingly when employees express negative feedback.”
Kahikina replied that the toxic workplace accusation is “very subjective and is too vague to fairly address.”
“I also think it is unfair for a few past or present employees to take their personal feelings and extend those feelings to other employees,” she wrote. “I have never been told that the health of employees has been affected in this way.”
Kahikina described herself as an effective leader who assumed control of a complex, troubled project more than three years ago that had a financial shortfall and was burdened with “an inefficient and bloated organization.”
“As any CEO in a turnaround-type situation, I made hard decisions to change the course of this project,” she wrote. “Did everyone agree with my decisions? Absolutely not. But in the past three years, we have overcome many problems and have put this project in a better position than it has been in since its inception.”
She noted the Human Resources Committee received dozens of pages of written testimony supporting her contract extension from HART employees, rail contractors, local business people and others in the public.
As for the claim that she berated or harassed employees, “it is very easy for an anonymous person to make this very general statement,” Kahikina wrote.
She would expect to see specific examples of any such incidents and hear from witnesses if someone is going to “besmirch my reputation,” she said in her letter.
Kahikina’s evaluations in each of the past two years by the board have praised some aspects of her performance, but also directed some sharp criticisms at her over issues of staffing, recruitment, employee relations and transparency.
Tensions between her and some members of the board surfaced publicly in April during a heated discussion of the abrupt resignation of Nate Meddings, the former project director for HART that some board members considered to be critical to the success of the project.
HART Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa raised her voice at Kahikina during that discussion, and Kahikina later complained publicly that the exchange amounted to workplace 鈥渂ullying.鈥 Hanabusa later asked the city to investigate Kahikina鈥檚 bullying allegation.
The HART board is scheduled to again take up the issue of Kahikina’s contract on Friday.
Read Lori Kahikina’s full rebuttal letter to the HART board:
