HONOLULU — The future of Lori Kahikina — CEO and executive director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation — will be delayed at least another two weeks after HART’s Human Resources Committee delayed the issue so the full board can review written testimony from current and prior employees that was presented Friday in executive session.
Publicly, HART received unanimous support for Kahikina in written and live testimony, including from contractors and employees.
Praise for Kahikina included her changing HART’s culture, meeting regularly with vendors and contractors to hear their concerns and explain issues at HART, empowering employees and, to HART’s female business manager, representing “the epitome” of a strong female CEO.
But in executive session, committee members received written statements from 10 other former and current employees, committee Chair Michelle Chun Brunngraber said after emerging from more than an hour in executive session.
Brunngraber did not characterize whether the employees supported or opposed Kahikina to continue to lead the city’s rail project.
Brunngraber said the employees’ names will be redacted when their testimony goes before the full board.
The next directors meeting has been scheduled for June 21.
Before the Human Resources Committee went into executive session, Kahikina said that she was “proud of what we’ve accomplished together” and wanted to continue in her role, saying she wanted to “see it to the end.”
As the hearing neared its completion, at one point Brunngraber incorrectly referred to Kahikina as “Kahiakaaka.”
Corrected, Brunngraber said, “I’m sorry, Lori. I know how to say it.”
In a separate issue before the committee, HART board Chair Colleen Hanabusa said she was the subject of an item on the agenda referred to as “Board Member Conduct.”
Hanabusa said that on May 22 she referred concerns about Kahikina’s treatment by the board to the city’s human resources department for investigation in a move that Hanabusa called “self- reporting myself.”
She chastised the Honolulu Star- Advertiser for reporting that the item could have been related to board member Natalie Iwasa, who later told the committee Friday, “I thought it was about myself.”
Iwasa has been barred from attending HART executive sessions after Hanabusa in November 2021 required her — and three other board members appointed by the state Legislature — to sign a confidentiality agreement that Iwasa said was so onerous that it could lead to criminal liabilities for simply downloading a confidential HART memo.
Iwasa, a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner, said potential criminal action could put her professional license at risk.
The issue has been at a stalemate after the state attorney general and city corporation counsel issued contrary opinions in early 2022 over whether board members appointed by either the state Senate president or House speaker are required to sign confidentiality agreements.
Iwasa was one of two board members at the time who were appointed by House Speaker Scott Saiki. Brunngraber was the other.
Iwasa said she was told by the Attorney General’s Office that she already was bound by confidentiality without signing an agreement.
Before Friday’s committee hearing, Iwasa said Brunngraber asked her to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
The opinion by the attorney general said the HART board has no legal authority to treat board members differently and require legislative appointees to sign the then-new confidentiality agreements required by Hanabusa.
But the city Department of the Corporation Counsel disagreed.
On Friday, Iwasa told the HART committee that the issue “really needs to be resolved.”
Kahikina’s $275,000 contract expires Dec. 31, and there has been no significant discussion of her future.
Kahikina told the Star- Advertiser last week that she would consider a one-year contract insulting, given her role in turning around the rail project and getting it open a year ago.
She has been praised for helping to restore faith in the project from the Federal Transit Administration, which in 2023 released $125 million in federal funds to HART for the first time since 2017.
The FTA on Monday, June 3, told the Star-Advertiser that leadership uncertainty at HART could jeopardize another $250 million in federal money due to HART.
Mayor Rick Blangiardi then told HART officials in a memo to cooperate with the investigation into Kahikina’s treatment and also called for the board to offer her a multiyear contract.
