From: Tom Berg
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 5:47 AM
To: OCA
Subject: Resolution 12-149 Audit of HART Public Relations
Aloha,
What is the status for the resolution calling for an audit of HART's public relations outreach and expenditures and positions /salaries for such? The resolution calling for the audit passed the city council in July of 2012- resolution 12-149.
MAHALO
Concerned Citizen
Please respond via email. Thank you.
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Aloha Mr. Berg, November 18, 2013
My apologies for not responding sooner to your e-mail. I was out-of town.The management draft report was sent to HART for discussions in October. Based on the several detailed discussions, we have re-drafted the final report. HART has until early December to formally respond to the final report. We anticipate releasing the final report to the public the first part of December. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Mahalo,
Edwin S. W. Young, City Auditor
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WHERE IS THE AUDIT OF HART PROPAGANDA MACHINE?
by Tom Berg, former Honolulu City Council (2011-2013)
In March of 2012, we – being my office at the time when I served on the Honolulu City Council- we exposed the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit (HART) fleecing the taxpayers with a clandestine, multi-million dollar propaganda machine.
At the full council hearing on June 6, 2012, I read off the names and salaries of what was known at the time being spent on rail propaganda in this short YouTube: Rail Propaganda.
The use of the term “clandestine” is most appropriate here since to this day, HART has refused to disclose the salary of former Honolulu Advertiser Editor, Jeanne Mariani-Belding, who is on the payroll to promote rail for HART. Ms. Mariani-Belding, while working for the newspaper, controlled what editorials got published and she successfully blocked articles that illustrated the superiority of Bus Rapid Transit over rail. For this, she was rewarded with a job to act as a spokesperson for the rail project--one of many spokespersons promoting HART’s agenda whose salaries are kept secret.
Resolution 12-149 to audit HART’s public relation antics passed the Honolulu City Council in July of 2012. The Council was told the audit would take less than a year to bring forth findings--so where is it?
Will an audit of HART’s public relations’ schemes reveal money laundering to slush funds that found a home in pro-rail candidates' coffers and operatives?
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Related:
Text of Resolution 12-149
REQUESTING THE CITY AUDITOR TO CONDUCT AN AUDIT OF THE HONOLULU AUTHORITY FOR RAPID TRANSPORTATION’S CONTRACTS AND SPENDING FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT SERVICES.
WHEREAS, according to information provided by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (“HART”) to the Honolulu City Council, HART has contracted with at least two major contractors, who in turn have hired at least eleven subcontractors, to provide “public involvement” services at a cost of about $4 million (Dept. Com. 405, 2012); and
WHEREAS, the public involvement services from these contracts are over and above the services already provided by the five HART employees who are dedicated to public relations and involvement and make a combined $362,000 in salaries (Dept. Corn. 405, 2012); and
WHEREAS, additionally, large contractors hired by HART to work on the rail project often employ their own public relations teams on staff or through subcontract, such as Kiewit Infrastructure, which has its own public information employees and contracts with a separate public relations firm for even more public information help with the project; and
WHEREAS, HART has stated that its public involvement work is a requirement of any federally funded project to encourage public participation during all stages of the rail project, although no citation for this federal requirement has been provided and concerns have surfaced regarding what appears to be excessive spending on public involvement; and
WHEREAS, additional concerns have been raised that HART’s public involvement work, contracts, and spending have crossed the line from public information to political programs and efforts designed to influence public sentiment, lobby elected officials, and push the project forward at an unreasonable pace; and
WHEREAS, the Council finds that the large amount of money spent by HART on public involvement, both in-house as well as through contractors and subcontractors, seems increasingly political, excessive, and unjustifiable; and
WHEREAS, the Council believes there is a public need to examine the contracts and spending for the rail project’s public relations and public involvement services to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and not misused; and
BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City and County of Honolulu that it urges the City Auditor to conduct an audit of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s contracts and spending for public relations and public involvement services; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Auditor, among other audit tasks, determine what specific public involvement service or services each employee, contractor and subcontractor provides, and provide an opinion on whether these services, and the amount paid for these services, individually and collectively, are objective, required by federal law, and therefore justified; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Office of the City Auditor, the Chair of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, and the Mayor.