Rail

...Councilmember Pine worked with the new administration to fill a vital need by improving bus service in the wake of cuts made last summer....

AECOM, announced today that it is working on a US$43.9-million contract from the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation....

Really Obvious Question: They win by bribery in India, how do they win in Hawaii?

"Given the magnitude of the contract, we want to make sure the vendor has the capacity to perform." -- HART Finance Committee Chairman Don Hor­ner

Auto commutes will be made more cumbersome to promote public transportation....

Census data strongly suggests that Hawaii, and Oahu in particular, are stable communities with very mild growth....

...the state Office of Planning is now drafting a resolution for Abercrombie to sign as an executive policy, recognizing that TOD is a priority of state government....

Why? Because transportation infrastructure deployment lags demand by decades....

L.A. County MTA "spends almost twice as much on rail to carry about one-fourth as many passengers" as its buses do....

Overproject. Then claim that burning millions of dollars for nothing is a savings....

...an audit of HART’s contracts and spending for public relations and public involvement services to determine what service(s) each employee, contractor and subcontractor provides....

With protesters unleashing their fury on Abercrombie’s Public Lands Development Corporation, political insiders have been scheming.  And on December 28, they quietly announced their plan....

Next step the Ninth Circuit?

The report’s recommendations come after a series of meetings between state government officials, private sector leaders and non-profit representatives....

Judge Tashima issued his final ruling yesterday and that allows us to at last appeal both this ruling and the others that he has made over the 19 months that this case has taken....

...this matter is remanded to the Federal Transit Administration....

No taxpayer money will be used for construction, operation or maintenance....

Litigation is nearing the "end game" regarding the adequacy of the final environmental impact statement (FEIS) and record of decision (ROD)....

... cutting wasteful projects is productive and necessary to avoid a nosedive....

...Ray LaHood today participated in a ceremony to sign an agreement to provide $1.55 billion to the City and County of Honolulu on the island of Oahu....

Our federal lawsuit will have what is most probably its final hearing before Judge A. Wallace Tashima this coming Wednesday, December 12, at 10:00AM in the Federal Courthouse....

Full Council Hearing This Wednesday Dec. 5th Includes Rail: The Final Vote....

Oahu lost 4% of its construction jobs while the sister isles gained 27% more constrction jobs.

Pro-Rail Pacific Resources Partnership today released its first anti-Cayetano ad for the General Election season....

The Sierra Club is the only environmental group that has advocated for the controversial elevated steel on steel rail system....  Several other high profile environmental organizations have opposed the project....

As Rail construction continues, Honolulu construction employments continues to drop, losing 1,300 jobs between June, 2011 and June, 2012....

"This is really disturbing to hear, and so incorrect. You have no idea what you are talking about."

"Honolulu needs a mayor who is both committed to keeping the country, country and who understands the urgency of developing the modern infrastructure needed to ensure most new growth will occur in Honolulu's traditional urban core."

Honolulu rail officials today canceled the contracts for eight of its public outreach specialists, in a move that will save $2.8 million ...

...five accounts in the listing are shown as, “Not reported.” Jeanne Mariani-Belding, former editorial page editor of the Advertiser is one....

What was the role of InfraConsult in promoting a $1.9M change order given to HDR immediately prior to announcement of the HDR deal to purchase InfraConsult?

... Many gathered again in the parking lot as more police arrived and flaring tempers were separated by additional HPD officers ....

According to the Associated General Contractors of America, Hononlulu ranks 272^nd in construction growth, losing 1,400 construction jobs over the past year.

Union members who have been led to believe rail would put them back to work can now see that it simply isn’t happening....

For months building trades unions and the management-labor Pacific Resources Partnership have been putting union members to work—as pro-rail protesters.

Another 600 construction jobs were lost in the Honolulu area between January 2011 and January 2012, a 3 percent decline, according to an analysis released by the Associated General Contractors of America ....

...the City's rail construction budget is limited to their using what they can get from the city's ½ percent addition to the GE Tax...On the other hand, they can use all they want for operating subsidies from the General Fund....

...authorize the City and County of Honolulu to impose a general excise tax surcharge — much like the one already in effect to fund the rail project — for highway and bikeway construction....

When we examined the public file documents shortly after Mayor Carlisle made the award announcement on March 21, 2011, we were shocked to discover that the disqualification of our proposal swept away what would have been the winning bid.

This year’s revolt against the bemedalled despot will reduce Finmeccanica’s revenue by some €300m.

... a "waste of time" because of the billion of euros it has lost over the years. The division, AnsaldoBreda, makes trams, trains and subways....

Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, chairman of defense and aerospace group Finmeccanica (Parent Company of Honolulu Rail Contractor Ansaldo), has been put under investigation by Rome prosecutors examining allegations of secret slush funds, legal sources said on Friday.

In the early 1990's Eric Ryan was the first student in Chaminade history to be convicted of forging student signatures and election ballots thus beginning his career of graphic design so he continue forging documents. He later took Chaminade to court for defamation of character.

Eric Ryan wants to save Honolulu from the waste, fraud and corruption that he seems to find wherever he goes. Eric see’s himself as some sort of crusader fighting a lonely battle to expose the rampant misuse of power that only he is capable of seeing.

Almost everyone else see’s Eric as a garden-variety malcontent, angry about being fired and hell-bent on retaliation. 

The City’s Department of Budget and Fiscal Services (BFS) has rejected two bid protests regarding the awarding of the core systems contract for the Honolulu Rail Transit Project. BFS found “no procedural or legal violations in any aspect of the procurement” for the contract.

Bob Wiesel is a pseudonym that has a long history in Honolulu and been passed around quite a bit.  I am one of many Bob Wiesels...collectively we amount to a poor man's Publius. There are blog entries that go back to before 2001 still online from Robert D. Wiesel, BobW, BWiesel and every other variant that you can dream up.  Some of the "Bob's" work for, or had worked for both the city and state at some point. 

Blog participation at City Hall tapered off after Dave Shapiro started publishing IP addresses in an attempt to suppress his critics.  Several individuals at City Hall asked Charles Totto (ethics commission) for a reading on whether it was "against the rules" to participate during our lunch hour, breaks etc.  He recommended that we play it safe and just not do it at all from the city network and it pretty much stopped at that point.  Bob Wiesels live on, however, on their own time and own internet connections. 

We are reprinting excerpts from an April 23 letter to Honolulu Councilmember Ann Kobayashi from Honolulu Attorney John C. McLaren who wrote “on behalf of former Governor Ben Cayetano and other unidentified people” according to the May 6 Advertiser.  Kobayashi and Cayetano are key supporters of Neil Abercrombie.    The allegations contained in the letter have been forwarded to the State procurement office for investigation.