Mayor Caldwell appoints engineer Glenn Nohara to HART Board

News Release from City and County of Honolulu, October 27, 2016

Mayor Kirk Caldwell today announced his appointment of professional engineer and licensed general contractor Glenn M. Nohara to the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) Board of Directors effective today (October 28, 2016) through June 30, 2021.

Nohara will serve the remainder of the term currently held by Colleen Hanabusa, who is resigning to run for the United States House of Representatives. The HART Board members will vote to select their new Chair.

LINK: Glenn Nohara $12,000 Caldwell Contributor -- $102K in Contributions to Hawaii Candidates

Currently the Chair of the Board of Directors at Koga Engineering and Construction, Inc., Nohara served for nearly two decades as the company’s President and C.O.O. from 1992 to 2010, and General Superintendent to the Vice President from 1984 to 1992. Previously, he served as Cost Engineer, Project Engineer, and Superintendent at Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company, Inc. from 1974 to 1984.

Nohara is a director of the General Contractors Association of Hawai‘i, a former director of the Sand Island Business Association, and a former member of the University of Hawai‘i College of Engineering Development Advisory Committee and the U.H. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Industry Advisory Committee.

“Glenn’s years of private sector engineering and construction experience, particularly in estimating construction costs for projects, give him the background and knowledge needed to oversee the rail project and carefully review costs before they are approved,” said Mayor Caldwell. “Glenn is a talented cost watchdog. He has the experience necessary to ask tough questions to ensure all cost estimates are accurate and the project is completed to the highest standard. He will be a strong presence and compliment HART’s new Interim Executive Director and CEO K.N. Murthy, who has extensive expertise building and delivering rail construction projects.”

“I am pleased to be able to contribute my experience in both engineering and construction to the HART Board, and am looking forward to working with other board members to oversee the construction of Hawai‘i’s largest infrastructure project ever,” said Nohara.

In her resignation letter, Chair Hanabusa said, “I count it as a rare privilege in my career to have had the opportunity to participate in a project with the breadth and impact of Honolulu’s rail system. Even with the unique challenges we encountered in moving the project forward, I can think of no effort that I would have considered more valuable.”

The HART Board is made up of nine voting members: three appointed by the mayor, three appointed by the Honolulu City Council, two ex-officio members, and a ninth member appointed by the eight other board members. Mayor Caldwell’s appointees are Nohara, Colbert Matsumoto, and William “Buzz” Hong. The city council’s appointees are Damien Kim, John Henry Felix, and Terrence Lee. The ex-officio members are Honolulu Acting Director of Transportation Services Mark Garrity and State of Hawai‘i Director of Transportation Ford Fuchigami. Terri Fujii is the board-appointed member. Acting Director of Planning and Permitting Art Challacombe also serves as a non-voting ex-officio member.

Links: Mayor Caldwell's letter of appointment Chair Hanabusa's letter of resignation

High resolution photos of Glenn Nohara: http://bit.ly/Nohara

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Djou Comments on New HART Appointments

From www.Djou.com  

Mayoral candidate Charles Djou's comment on the appointment of Glenn Nohara to the HART board and Krishniah Murthy as HART interim executive director:

"It's a step in the right direction to have engineers with real experience being named to HART after years of inept management. I wish both Mr. Nohara and Mr. Murthy well and look forward to working closely with them if fortunate to serve as mayor. The only way, however, to fix the rail mess is to elect a new mayor who will take responsibility for both their achievements and failures and who makes a concerted effort to learn from those failures.

"As Mayor, I will make sure that HART's interim executive director and board work closely with the City Council to audit HART's technical and management capabilities so that we put rail back on the right track. If elected, I will also urge HART to consider finding a permanent executive director from right here at home. We have so many talented and intelligent individuals in Hawaii and need to start putting our own people to work."