At the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board meeting last Friday, members offered CEO Lori Kahikina a multi-year contract.
This comes after weeks of drama around an exchange between Kahikina and Board Chair Colleen Hanabusa and other members about whether she should be offered a contract extension.
There were allegations of bullying by some board members. Hanabusa offered to step down as chair because of the probe, though she remains in her position.
Roger Morton sits on the HART board as the city transportation director. At an event Monday marking one year of Skyline operations, he addressed Kahikina’s future with the project.
"We all know that Lori is a tough boss. She operates her agency almost like private sector. I think some people have not liked that, that she's firm," he said. "My perspective is that she's done a good job. She's got the system where it is today, and she deserves a lot of credit. She's not perfect, none of us are."
HART is scheduled to be completed upon the end of rail construction around 2030 or 2031.
"There is sentiment that maybe what we should do is have a multiyear contract, perhaps a fixed portion and maybe some optional portions that would get us all the way to the end of construction of the system. It would be hard, if you think about it, if you wanted to change CEOs with only two or three years left in the system — that makes no sense," Morton said.
Morton also commented on an announcement Friday that the city is assuming Bikeshare Hawaiʻi's oversight role of the Biki system. He said financial sponsorship of Biki dwindled as a result of the pandemic.
"These would be like Japanese airlines that just were not going to sponsor something because there was no tourism coming to Hawaiʻi at all, and so one by one, some of the major sponsors kind of dried up, and that created a cash crunch for the nonprofit, but not for the for-profit company that actually operated — they're okay, they're sustainable," he said.
The nonprofit's oversight role is separate from the for-profit entity, Secure Bike Share Hawaiʻi, which operates and maintains the Biki system.
"We're going to do that for one year right now, kind of as an emergency concession agreement, and during this next year, we will put out an RFP for a multiyear period following normal procurement processes where we'll select a company," Morton added.
He clarified that the city is not funding the system, which continues to operate solely on rider fees. The city said riders will not notice any changes in bike availability, operations, accounts or customer support.
This interview aired on The Conversation on July 1, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
