CONCERN FOR TAXPAYERS AND COMMUTERS PROMPTS WEST OAHUCITY COUNCILMAN TOM BERG TO HOLD TOWN HALL MEETINGS TO REVIEW RAIL PROJECT
News Release from Ewa-Waianae Councilman Tom Berg
Honolulu, Hawaii – Citing dozens of serious concerns from constituents about the City’s $5.3 billion rail transit project -- ranging from skyrocketing cost, diminishing benefits and misinformation from the proponents of the system, including City government -- West Oahu City Councilman Tom Berg has scheduled a first of a series of major town hall meetings on the subject.
On June 15th from 7pm to 9pm at the brand new Ewa Makai Middle School in Ewa Beach, Berg will host several guest presenters in order to facilitate the public being able to form an up-to-date understanding of what they can truly expect from the rail project in return for 16 years of higher sales taxes for construction and then higher property taxes in the future for annual operations and maintenance of the rail system.
With construction yet to start, and with promised $1.55 billion in federal funding a long way from being approved, Berg’s rationale for his first town hall meeting on the subject of rail is to address the major changes to the project involving cost, route, and effectiveness. Councilman Berg points to these changes and to the City’s misinformation preceding the 2008 vote as “a situation which ultimately impacts my constituents’' cost of living, quality of life, and what return on investment they receive for their tax dollars.”
Since being sworn in as the City’s newest council member, Berg now has access to information at City Hall which has resulted in “revelations,” such as Berg’s contention that “voters were severely misled by their own City government prior to that 2008 election. That is no small matter.”
More from Berg:
“Ultimately, while voters should have the final say about the largest public works project in Hawaii's history, they should not be prevented from knowing about what's changed since 2008 or about how they were purposefully misinformed before they cast their votes. They deserve to know the full story based on the facts known right now in 2011, especially since my constituents were sold on the idea that their commute times on H-1 would be reduced each morning and each afternoon if the rail project was built . . . only to now learn from Wayne Yoshioka, the City's Director of Transportation Services, that once rail is built ‘traffic congestion will be worse in the future with rail than what it is today without rail.’ In actuality, according to the City’s own official yet unpublicized studies, the traffic West Oahu experiences each morning and afternoon will be nearly 60% worse than it is now, rather than less as promised by the City in 2008, and the tiny ridership of rail projected by the City’s experts will result in only a tiny increase in the use of public transportation. The public was told a very different story in 2008 than what I’ve learned at City Hall in the past few months. My constituents and all Oahu residents deserve the truth.” [Yoshioka quote from page 1,252 of Appendix A, Final Environmental Impact Statement]
For these and other reasons, the central questions to be addressed on June 15th, from 7pm to 9pm at the brand new EwaMakaiMiddle School are:
(1) Is the City's rail project going to give Oahu residents their money's worth or even meet their expectations?
(2) Based on the facts known in 2011 and corrections to false information provided by proponents of the rail project (including the City administration), do Oahu residents want another vote?
ATTACHMENTS TO PRESS RELEASE
* link to YouTube video highlights of Berg with Ewa Makai students on 09 March 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMz-0a1YNt4
* promotional flyer for Berg's 11 June 2011 major town hall meeting about rail project: LINK