Council demands A majority of the Honolulu City Council has moved to invoke its subpoena powers to get public answers from Harris administration officials about alleged mismanagement and construction problems at the Central Oahu Regional Park.
answers from city
Harris officials are stonewalling
on data on the Regional Park,
Council members sayBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comIf the Council follows through on the move, it would be the first time in 26 years that it has used its subpoena powers.
The Council members complained that the city has stonewalled their attempts to get information on the park project, which they said could cost as much as $64.8 million. The first 100 acres of the 269-acre park opened last summer.
"The Council does not take the introduction of this resolution to seek subpoena powers lightly. We only do so after repeated attempts to obtain information we need to do our jobs," said Councilman Duke Bainum, who along with John DeSoto, Ann Kobayashi, Gary Okino and John Henry Felix introduced a resolution yesterday that called for a special Council investigation of the park project.
"This administration appears to be plagued with a serious disease -- it's called paranoia, secrecy, their unwillingness to share information with us on a timely basis," Felix said.
Mayor Jeremy Harris was unavailable for comment.
City Managing Director Ben Lee, however, said yesterday that the extraordinary step of a special Council investigation is not needed.
City officials will gladly meet with the Council members in a closed-door meeting to discuss the project, he said.
Lee said pending investigations surrounding aspects of the park project require those talks to be in private so they do not jeopardize those inquiries, which were launched after city employee Kelly Saunders raised allegations of mismanagement.
The Honolulu Police Department and the city prosecutor's office are conducting separate investigations stemming from Saunders' complaint and possible campaign spending violations.
Lee did not know how long these investigations would last.
"I don't think there's anything to hide," he said. "I don't think we're paranoid. I think, in this instance, we have several masters to follow."
Even so, an executive-session meeting is something Council members strongly oppose. They said the public should be aware of any problems to avoid anything like the Ewa Villages scandal five years ago.
"This Council wants to bring about accountability," Kobayashi said. "We're not interested in covering up or to go behind closed doors to discuss matters that should be brought before the public."
The last time the City Council used its subpoena powers was in 1976, when it investigated bribery allegations associated with Kukui Plaza and then-Mayor Frank Fasi and his former campaign treasurer Harry C.C. Chung.
The inquiry centered around allegations that the late developer Hal Hansen paid more than $70,000 to Fasi's campaign after Fasi selected Hansen's company to build the $50 million city urban-renewal project known as Kukui Plaza.
But charges were dropped after Hansen refused to testify. Fasi has insisted the alleged scandal was politically motivated.
The resolution introduced yesterday calls for an investigation of the planning, engineering, design and construction of the partially completed Waipio park.
Moreover, it would give the Council chairman broad powers, including the ability to subpoena witnesses, as well as the authority to hire and fund a special counsel to conduct an investigation.
Allegations of mismanaged construction on the project peaked this summer after Saunders, a project manager with the city Department of Design and Construction, made public allegations of fraud and waste.
A Star-Bulletin review of project records also showed both consultant and construction contracts have incurred serious cost overruns that, in some instances, have tripled the cost of work there.
Bainum said the Council's special investigation would likely center around:
>> How many contracts did the city sign for the park and at what cost?Bainum said one person the Council wants to subpoena is Rae Loui, who is Saunders' departmental director.>> What kind of change-orders to contracts were issued?
>> What were the cost overruns and why?
>> Which contractors have been paid and not paid by the city?
>> When were contracts assigned, when did they begin and when were the permits given?
"We're not alleging that there has been problems there in terms of anything criminal," Bainum said. "All we're saying is, give us the information. Let's have a clear idea of what we're dealing with so everyone can reach their own conclusion."
The resolution, 02-243, must go through the regular Council process, including a public hearing, before it goes for final approval.
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