Honolulu Rail Authority Board Keeps Colleen Hanabusa As Chair
The debate over Hanabusa’s role on the board became tense at times, with one board member agitating for new leadership.
Seasoned political player Colleen Hanabusa will stay on as chair of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board at least until the middle of next year despite an effort Friday by some board members to push for new leadership.
The HART board oversees the $10 billion Honolulu rail project, the largest pubic works project in state history. Hanabusa has served as chair of the unpaid HART board twice, most recently beginning in 2021.
She is a Democrat who twice served as a U.S. congresswoman representing Hawaii, and is former president of the state Senate. She also made an unsuccessful run for governor in 2018.
HART board rules require the board to elect a chair and vice chair each year, but the board deferred that decision last summer. Hanabusa then scheduled a board discussion and vote for Friday to decide who will serve as chair for the rest of this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
HART board member Anthony Aalto said Friday the rail leadership in the years ahead must find ways to extend the rail line beyond Kakaako, and Hanabusa is extremely well qualified to navigate that process. He argued the board “would be insane not to keep Colleen on as chair.”
“We were talking about how the next steps for this board are going to be looking at extensions, and how we’re going to find the revenue to fund them. That’s purely a political matter,” Aalto said. “There’s nobody on this board who has the political connections — the political heft — that Colleen has.”
But HART Vice Chairman Kika Bukoski, a union executive and a former state representative, said some internal issues have been “festering” at HART. He noted Hanabusa requested a city personnel investigation into a verbal dispute that she had with HART CEO Lori Kahikina in April.
Kahikina publicly described the heated exchange as a case of workplace bullying by Hanabusa, and Hanabusa then “self-reported” the incident to the city administration. Hanabusa requested an investigation into the exchange, but said Friday she does not know where that investigation stands.
Kahikina later secured a new long-term contract to continue as HART’s chief executive. Aalto said Friday he would “like to think” Hanabusa and Kahikina have resolved their dispute.
“I’m not aware of any internal issues going forward,” Aalto told Bukoski. “If you’d like to elucidate what they are, I’d like to hear them.”
Bukoski said the board came close to losing Kahikina during the contract negotiations, and if that had happened, “that would have sent this project into a tailspin.”
“I’ve always been consistent in looking for the stability of this project — not just in the past but going forward — and I believe that if we continue down this current road, until all these issues have been resolved, then this project may not be as stable as we might think,” Bukoski said.
“I’m trying to figure out a way to somehow maintain stability of the project so that we can try to move through these hurdles that we’re going to face very soon,” he said.
Bukoski nominated HART board member Ed Sniffen, who is director of the state Department of Transportation, to be the new board chair. But Sniffen was not present at the Friday meeting and has only occasionally attended board meetings.
Board member Robert Yu said he believes it is important for the chair to be engaged with board members, participate in board discussions and attend board meetings, “and because of all that, I cannot support Ed.”
“Ed could be the most competent person, the nicest person, but its hard for me to support someone who doesn’t come to the board meetings,” Yu said.
Bukoski finally withdrew his nomination of Sniffen, and the board voted 6-2 in favor of Hanabusa staying on as chair until next June. Bukoski and board member Lisa Baker voted no.
