State Rep. Kanani Souza wants an emergency route built in Makakilo, a community with only one way in and one way out.
However, none of the measures she introduced this legislative session got a hearing in the Transportation Committee.
During a committee hearing Wednesday, Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto alleged that Transportation Committee Chair Darius Kila said he would not hear any measures introduced by Souza.
“I heard a very clear statement that he was not intending to hear any bills or resolutions from member Souza,” Iwamoto said.
“How do we fix this? It doesn't feel right that a single chair can ignore the needs of an entire district because of ill feelings — I don't know what kind of feelings, but it doesn't sit well with me. I can't stand by and ignore the fact that one of our colleagues is being left out of this process."
Besides Kila, Souza introduced the most measures with Transportation as the primary committee — all 10 did not get a hearing.
“Makakilo and Kapolei have a lot of transportation-related issues. So it's an issue if what Rep. Iwamoto is saying is true, then it's detrimental to my community,” Souza said.
“You're marginalizing an entire community at the hands of one chair, and so this is an issue that I'm going to push further. I submitted a letter to speaker addressing this issue, and hopefully we can move forward and find some resolution because we can't continue on like this.”
Kila wrote in an emailed statement that Iwamoto’s allegation is not true — and that all bills referred to the Transportation Committee are considered for a hearing.
He added that he did not hear one of the resolutions Souza introduced because the state should not be taking on the financial responsibility of extending Makakilo Drive to the H-1 Freeway, a city project estimated to cost $200 million.
“While there is an urgent need for improved access and alternate evacuation routes, I do not believe it is appropriate for the Legislature to request that the City and County transfer this responsibility to the State of Hawaiʻi, particularly given the current fiscal challenges and federal funding cuts,” Kila wrote.
Souza also introduced measures that would create a task force to examine the delays of the Makakilo Drive extension and another that asks the Department of Transportation to look for other emergency routes out of Makakilo besides Makakilo Drive.
Common Cause Hawaii Program Director Camron Hurt explained that regardless of what happened, it highlights a systemic issue: committee chairs at the Legislature have too much power.
“ The statement described of Rep. Kila by Rep. Iwamoto has not been Common Cause of Hawaii's experience with Rep. Kila,” Hurt said.
“ However, that interaction of without the relationship, they won't hear your bill — that has been something expressed to me by multiple people representatives and senators in the state Legislature. So it's an open secret in that regard.”
Hurt wants reforms to the power that chairs have over what bills can even be heard in their committee.
"One of the biggest ones is stop allowing chairs to unilaterally kill bills, especially when that bill has made it through crossover,” he said. “ A bill that potentially has had over … 20 legislators [in committee] vote 'yes' on it. One legislator can decide to nullify 20 other legislators' votes.”
Those types of reforms can only be done through changing the House and Senate rules that govern how the Legislature operates.
