ALOHA,

This email message comes to you as a Hail Mary pass - last play of the game to win one for the taxpayer. This two-minute video pasted below explains my position on the steel wheel rail and the noise it will bring to our paradise and also serves as a request for your consideration to attend my town hall meeting this Tuesday.

Pending the lawsuit that claims that the Environmental Impact Statement for the rail project was not executed properly, the window of opportunity for the public to reassess this rail endeavor and get a better transit product came to a close on November 2, 2011, when the City Council voted against entertaining other transit technologies.

This 6-minute video illustrates my plea to do rail right and let you vote on it.

Is there a petition circulating to stop the rail? Not to my knowledge. Will there be a ballot question in 2012 for the public to stop the rail? Not to my knowledge. Yet almost half of our voting public on Oahu has major concerns about rail and wants another opportunity to be heard. That is why my efforts are to find greater cohesion and consensus amongst us to get rail right since it is coming upon us - whether we like it or not how it is panning out.

This 2-minute video captures the vote taken and the defeat of my resolution 11-328 followed by my closing remarks.

Our office has held numerous town hall meetings on rail and we have one more in store for you - a sort of a Hail Mary attempt at bringing closure to get the facts, get the truth, and get answers in tow before the train actually does leave the station and there is no turning back.

This video is approximately 3 minutes in length and covers my resolutions 11-349 and 11-352 to compensate the residents of Nanakuli for having to accommodate and house at the nearby PVT landfill all of the rail demolition and construction debris generated in the pursuit of rail.

We have reserved the Mission Memorial Auditorium next to Honolulu Hale to be the site for the big showdown that is to feature pro and con rail enthusiasts sitting side-by-side to go head-to -head for Questions & Answers with the public in attendance.

Panelists thus far confirmed are UH Professor of Civil Engineering Dr. Panos Prevedouros, State Senator Sam Slom, Scott Foster with the architects promoting light rail, Dennis Callan with Hawaii Geographic Society, Gig Greenwood favoring Monorail, and Frank Genadio favoring Urban Magnetic Levitation.

Invites to Mayor Carlisle, Go-Rail-Go, HART interim director Toru Hamayasu, and numerous elected officials who favor the General Excise Tax increases to fund rail - such as Representatives Kym Pine, Sharon Har, and Rida Cabanilla, as well as State Senators Mike Gabbard and Will Espero have all declined.

Governor Ben Cayetano and Department of Transportation Services Director Wayne Yoshioka were also invited but have not confirmed yet whether they will attend.

In this video, the message is: NUMBERS DO NOT LIE, PEOPLE DO.

The meeting will be recorded by Olelo Community Television and will start at 6:00 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m.

IN CLOSING, whether you are for this steel rail project or clamoring for something else, your participation and voices should be heard. My online survey reflects that some 75% do not want to embark on this rail until we fix the sewers, the roads, and water mains. That is why I am holding this meeting - for all of us to get behind a solution we can be proud of and willing to sustain with our hard earned dollars.

MISSION MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM
6:00-8:30 P.M.
DECEMBER 6, 2011

Parking available at the Civic Center Parking Garage. Enter from S. Beretania Street, street level parking. Parking is free after 4:00 p.m. except for the reserved stalls.