The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has determined that it overpaid some of the businesses and tenants that were relocated along the rail line by at least $2.3 million.
Krista Lunzer, a consultant with the who works as rail鈥檚 latest director of property acquisition and relocation, delivered that total as part of her to the board Thursday.
Last month, Lunzer reported that the city and rail agency had also underpaid other parties displaced by the future rail line by some $885,000. Widespread problems with HART鈥檚 relocation payments, including missing documents, math errors and 鈥減ayments without justification,鈥 were first discovered in 2017 and made public in 2018.
The overpayments were HART鈥檚 responsibility and the agency won鈥檛 be pursuing reimbursement, Lunzer said. It will, however, apply the overpaid amount to any future relocation claims, she added.
HART board member Anthony Aalto called the situation, which affected relocation payments through 2016, 鈥渆gregious鈥 and asked whether any staff members involved were still at HART.
鈥淲hoever was responsible shouldn鈥檛 be working for us anymore,鈥 Aalto said. HART has never specified who, exactly, was responsible for the shoddy relocation payments. The board contemplated discussing the matter in closed session citing personnel issues in case any specific names were mentioned.
Aalto said it wouldn鈥檛 be necessary to name those responsible in public, and HART Executive Director Lori Kahikina assured him that all those involved have left the agency.
Last month, Lunzer told the board that HART had submitted its final report on its corrective actions on the relocation payments to the Federal Transit Administration on May 2.
The local rail agency has refused to provide a copy of that final report.
Such relocation overpayments were also the focus of a grand jury subpoena delivered to HART in early 2019.
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Marcel Honor茅 is a reporter for Civil Beat. You can email him at mhonore@civilbeat.org