DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Jeffrey Kuwahara, outreach coordinator at the Hanauma Bay Education Program, pointed out details Friday on a replica of reef structures found in the bay. The model was made from castings of actual structures, making it as accurate as possible.

Tide of criticism
dampens Bay plan

An advocacy group blames
the city for delays and climbing
costs at Hanauma Bay

---

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.com

Cost overruns and other problems continue to plague the city's controversial improvements at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, now expected to be completed 10 months behind schedule.

The Friends of Hanauma Bay, which once unfailingly aided Mayor Jeremy Harris' defense of the project, now say needless meddling by Harris and Managing Director Ben Lee have added to delays and costs and sacrificed safety for aesthetics.

A statement issued by the Friends said their concerns were ignored by the administration.

"Had the process allowed the continued partnership with the Friends, we would already have been enjoying a less costly, more operationally efficient and safer facility," the statement said.

DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM An exterior view of the Hanauma Bay Education Center shows its rocky facade, made to mimic the natural rock found around the crater rim. Many native Hawaiian plants, including naupaka, ilima, pili grass and hao, grow in the area.

In response, Lee said the changes were necessary and that he cannot understand the unhappiness expressed by the bay's supporters.

The latest problems include:

>> Cost overruns that have jacked the project construction cost to $12.9 million, nearly 22 percent higher than the $10.6 million contract issued to T. Iida Contracting in December 2000. Lee acknowledged that additional change orders could bring the final price to $13.1 million, about $100,000 more than the council authorized for the project in 1997.

>> A lawsuit filed by an award-winning producer who said he was given the verbal OK a year ago to create the crucial educational video for the project, only to be fired.

Dick Baker, a former Friends president, is calling on Honolulu City Council members to conduct an audit of the project.

"This is such an egregious example of high-handed and wasteful action on the part of the city administration that a full performance audit of this project is warranted," he said.

Three Council members said they intend to scrutinize the issue in the coming weeks.

In January, the Star-Bulletin reported that a series of 14 change orders had hiked the project by $2.1 million, or nearly 20 percent, to $12.7 million. The delays meant the project, begun in April 2001 and envisioned to be completed by the following October, would not be open until May 2002.

The administration has approved 16 change orders that carry the total cost of the project to $12,876,426, Lee said last week. Another eight requests for change orders are being considered that would raise the total to $13,112,500. Included is one change order for $93,000 that has preliminary approval.

But, Lee said, the $13.1 million would be reached only "if those figures are accurate and if the city accepts those change order proposals."

He also downplayed the significance of exceeding $13 million, noting that nearly $700,000 was transferred out to pay for design costs associated with moving the building as requested by bay supporters. An additional $350,000 was needed for inspection and construction management costs.

Meanwhile, he said, $127,350 was added into the construction account from the Koko Head Regional Park improvement account and $1.5 million from a landscape improvements account for "various parks."

"That leaves $13,581,000 that we have for construction," Lee said. "We still have a $704,574 balance in contingency to cover any additional change orders."

In a written statement to the Star-Bulletin, the Friends of Hanauma Bay, a nonprofit group devoted to the conservation of the bay, gave examples of changes made without the group's input, including some that they say appears to place attractiveness over functionality and even safety and health.

For instance, plans for a faux wrought-iron fence designed to prevent children from climbing onto the visitor center and other structures on the upper bay section were scrapped, the Friends said.

On the beach, a walkway on the Ewa side that was supposed to double as a road for emergency vehicles has been so narrowed by the addition of potted plants and a wall along the path that ambulances may have a difficult time driving through without being forced onto the sand, the Friends said.

Lee refused to discuss specific criticisms levied by the group, but insisted, "We don't compromise the safety of our residents and visitors at all."

Lee said most of the items covered in the change orders are not cosmetic and not the result of orders given from either him or Harris.

"This is typical," he said. "Before you open up a facility, you find that some things did not show up on the drawings, or that you weren't aware of, or there are improvements that can be made or a light fixture (that is) in the way. These are modifications or adjustments to the price, but not unusual at all for a project of this size, scope and complexity."

The project is 95 percent complete and the city intends to open it by the middle of next month, Lee said. Placement of the exhibits, construction of the snack bar and the gift shop, and final touches on the video are yet to be finished. However, the ticket booth and educational center can open before the snack bar and gift shop, he added.

Meanwhile, an educational video about the bay is also in dispute. Part of the rationale the city used in approving a policy that requires nonresidents to pay $3 admission, a policy now under litigation, is that it needed to educate visitors about the fragile ecosystem of the bay. That's one of the reasons for the video.

Disagreement over the content of the seven-minute video, which the city will ask all first-time visitors to view before entering the lower bay, appears to have sparked not only a lawsuit from a Maui director, but a rift between the Friends and the administration.

Jay April, managing partner of Artifact Studios, said his company had a verbal agreement with city officials to create the video and install the equipment for it at the educational center. While there was never a signed contract, April said, "the city made a bona fide deal with us."

April said Artifact did eight months of work, while attempting to reach a price with the city, only to be given an unreasonable ultimatum, after which the administration decided to go in-house for the work.

Artifact, which won for best film by a Hawaii filmmaker in the 1999 Hawaii International Film Festival, gave an initial quote of nearly $600,000 and then, in December, said it agreed with a high-ranking city official to have the video done within 150 days for $477,000.

But, according to Artifact's lawsuit, Lee stepped in and scrapped all previous negotiations, and instead "continued changing ... expectations, costs and project parameters."

In March, Artifact said, Lee gave an ultimatum that the project be completed at a cost of $255,000 by May 15, presumably in time for the education center opening shortly thereafter. April said that when he balked at the ultimatum, he was informed that the city had instead decided to go in-house.

Lee declined to discuss the lawsuit except to say that there was no signed deal and that the city "tried to come to an amicable resolution" with April.

He noted that under the guidance of Don Kozono, the city's in-house television producer, and several contract hires, the video will be done at a cost of about $250,000.

Lee said that what Artifact wanted was "just way beyond our budget and the industry standard."

The dispute between Artifact and the city aside, the Friends and Baker are worried that the video is being rushed and manipulated.

"There is a serious danger that the resulting video will not adequately achieve the original orientation objectives that were at the heart of the whole program," Baker said in a letter to the City Council.

Other bay supporters said a script was recently drastically rewritten to include the identification of fish, give a history of the bay and divert time away from giving do's and don'ts while at the bay. As a result, they said, whole scenes had to be reshot.

The Friends said its members have yet to see a final cut of the video. Lee said the video is not done and that the Friends will be able to review it when it is. He denied that there were drastic changes made to the initial script. Some changes may have been made to the video, he said, but they were done so that orientation, education and preservation are all emphasized.

Lee said he is appalled at statements made by the Friends. The details brought up could easily be discussed, he said.

"They should just pick up the phone and call us," he said.

Robin Bond, current Friends president, said Lee has the situation reversed. It is the administration that should have informed the Friends, who helped pushed the project past strong opposition, Bond said.

"Most of the time, we didn't know about the changes until we saw them happening," Bond said. "When should we have picked up the phone when the changes were already made?"

City Council members said they are interested about the concerns being raised.

"With so much opposition, the city still went ahead with building this and now we're in all this mess," said Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi. "It's really frustrating when we hear these things, and it's always the taxpayers that suffer in the end."

Hawaii Kai Councilman John Henry Felix, who represents the Hanauma Bay region, has already criticized the number and amount of change orders.

Had the administration paid more attention to the Friends, Felix said, "the improvements would have been completed and the public would be enjoying a truly world-class facility with an emphasis on preserving the bay."