ATI The Alliance for Traffic Improvement

Seeking cost effective ways to reduce traffic congestion on Oahu

September 30, 2004, Council Budget Meeting.

The City Council Budget Committee held a hearing today in the matter of funding and financing for the BRT project.

Deputy City Counsel Gregg Schwartz at first tried to stop all questioning because of "a lawsuit pending" and that some of the same questions being asked are being asked by the attorneys in the lawsuit. Since he could not justify such action the questioning proceeded. 

DTS and the Schwartz are all in denial.  Despite the FTA rescission of funding for BRT and the associated Record of Decision (ROD), and Senator Inouye’s action in having the funds allocated to non-BRT transportation projects, and with the City Council disassociating itself from the project, the city is proceeding full steam ahead with the BRT regardless.  

Acting DTS director George Miyamoto says he doesn't know the answer to the question: “Can you complete the IOS without federal funds?"  DTS’s Toru Hamayasu represented that they are now only doing finishing touches and will be ready to go in one or two months.

DTS claims that what they are funding is "the local project" and that the federal funds only pertain to the “federalized part” such as the Ala Moana and Kalia widening. Hamayasu claims that DTS asked the FTA in Nov 2003 to proceed with "the local project."  But the FTA never answered and so the city proceeded anyway.

This division into “federalized” and “local” is an artificial one dreamed up by the City to justify their actions. This division does not appear in any project documents.

Schwartz says that the FTA "tried to withdraw the ROD.  It is not clear that FTA has the legal authority to rescind the ROD.” He says that the city has "not lost the funding" although admitting that Inouye is putting the funds into another appropriation that may be used for BRT only if the next Mayor chooses. However, it would have to go through the FTA’s environmental process again.

Councilman Ann Kobayashi asked for clarification of the BRT buses, $790,000 each vs $400,000 each for regular buses and $600,000 plus each that Hamayasu claims to be the cost of the articulated buses.

This is quite clearly a giant mess.