 Welcome to Eyes on Hawaii on the ThinkTech Live Streaming Network series Broadcasting from our downtown studios at Pioneer Plaza at the core of downtown Honolulu. I'm your host Carol Cox. Joining me in the studios is former Honolulu Councilman and State Senator Mr. Rod Tam. Today we're going to talk with Mr. Tam about financial accountability of the rail. Remember that our talk shows are streamed live on the internet from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Every weekday and earlier shows are streamed live all night long. All our shows are streamed on livestream.com. If you want to links to our livestreams or previous broadcasts which are available on youtube.com or if you want to subscribe to our programs or get on mailing lists and get our programs and viruses go to thinktechhawaii.com If you want to pose a question or comment during one of our shows please tweet us at thinktechhawaii. So again this is about monies and costs of the Honolulu Rail and there's some people that are raising some concerns and so I've decided to bring Mr. Rod Tam in because he's with a group. Actually they've actually filed complaints. They've denounced the introduction of lacking of financial accountability and scrutiny in the city counter. Bill 3, CD1. Rod, thank you for joining me. I appreciate you coming in. Tell us, the viewers out there, what is this about? I mean is it just a few pennies or is this a lifetime signing on to a cost that we don't really know the amount? It amounts to billions of dollars. Billions of dollars of taxpayers' money being financially unaccountable for. Example, if I may, projected costs. It started from December 2012 with 5.26 billion dollars. December 2014 went up to 5.9 billion dollars. October 2015 went up to 6.56 billion dollars. March 2016 went up to 6.9 billion dollars. And projected now in May, this month, actually last month, last year 2016, 8.1 billion dollars. It's projected to go up to over 10 billion dollars now. And it's not just that simple. These are just projections. But as we've seen, things are revealing themselves. There's other costs that have yet to be mentioned or quantified. For example, the Dillingham Boulevard, the water main, the 42-inch water main. That in itself is an expensive undertaking. Has that been factored into this price? Not only the water line, but it's also the utility lines with the telephone, the electric, the cables. Imagine they got to remove each of the utility poles. And I remember back when I was a sixth senator, and it was one project, Paul Young School, wanted to have a new entrance. The utility pole was right in the way to remove that utility pole and to place it into another location because you had telephone lines, cable, electric lines. It cost over $100,000. That was based in terms of about 1995. Now, you have this organization that have come together and obviously out of frustration and the lack of clarity and transparency on the part of the city and heart and the mayor especially. So you found the Financial Accountability for Real Mass Transit Association. Can you share with us a little bit about that and where are you going with this and what are you eventually, what's the outcome other than you denounced bill three and then there's also bill 42. So give us a little background about this association. Let me begin by saying that I got invited to some meetings by opponents to Real because of the cost factor, financial accountability. So I went to the meetings and they were talking and around the table about ways and I said to myself, they're not very organized. So continuously they called me and said, you know, let me try to establish some foundation for you guys. And first of all, we need a name. We're all individuals and they said, what do you want to get involved? I said, well, at a time when I was a city councilman is when they got approved, literally for a fixed guideway system, which is another term for a real. They did specifically say it was steel. Wait, oh, okay. It's this mayor, Mayor Kurt Caldwell just wants to bill and steel and steel is very expensive compared to other type of technologies. So what happened, I organized this organization and we called it Financial Accountability for Real Transit Association. And I said, they asked me, what is a financial accountability? So I went over the terminology and said, you guys are talking about this cost. In a legal terms or financial terms, it's called financial accountability. It's like having your fund, your taxes, you got to be financially accountable. So it's very simply put. And so we started using the term and I said, everybody should try to hang on to that term and use it. And I said, why? Because we're all talking about cost, but you got to use the right terminology. So they started using the right terminology and everybody's coming along now. There's more clarity to it. What we've done, we opposed in terms of some legislation in the city council. Bill three, specifically. Bill three took the existing law of the city, which at the time chairman, councilman Ernie Martin established whereby there would be oversight of the rail and the cost financially and so forth. And going behold, reorganization occurred. Ernie Martin was out in his chair and so were the other three council members and Pobiyashi, Carol Fulkenaga and there was another person. But what happened is, the Cripp Cardwell started having puppets within the council. He organized them and he wanted his way. You know, like king ruler, right? Basically. So what he did is that he wanted this bill three, which took away the financial accountability from the city council. Well, hold on now. We already have an idea of how dysfunctional the rail and the building of it and the financing and a lot of things and lack of transparency. You're saying that Caldwell introduced or through the city council, formulated a bill, put together a bill, structured one to rid himself of accountability to the public? Right. Right. You're right. How do you wake up in the morning and ask for accountability by the council? But that should be welcome accountability because it'll help you gauge what you need and you have to go to the federal agencies to justify the need and you must show that you have the ability but if you don't have accountability then how can the feds trust what you say? Well, this way you have the double talk basically. It was left up to the mayor who said I want to be so person to give a presentation to the mayor, to the fed. Not the city council. And there wouldn't be any public hearings either. I see. So we don't have the city council to make the presentation. Right. We get someone that they have picked and shaped and chiseled out. Right. So what does this mean in the long run to the taxpayer here, the people that have retired for example on a very fixed income because in what, 2005 we're looking at a whole different economy compared to 2016 and 2017. Right. Things have really changed. How can the taxpayer and how can one justify such an impact such as the mayor on the homeowners and the taxpayers? How can you justify? Somebody put if the taxpayers are not now they're lost. So you run right over there basically. So. And then all the cost of living it goes up and up. We are the second highest cost of living in the United States. Next to Maryland. So. We have a lot of senior citizens. So there's no, very little transparency. Right. We know the cost is just astronomical now. Right. No controls. But no one's adhering to the promise. And yet we're seeing an increase in the economy is changing. And then you decide that you introduce a bill removing oversight or any public scrutiny. It's a call on what you, a functional government, a dysfunctional government of a dictatorship quite frankly. Yeah. But in the process, there are a number of people to get hurt. As far as not just, I'm a homeowner myself. And I can imagine the costs. And then what other costs will this mayor, I'm noticing a many of things that are not being cared for like cleaning of streams which will eventually lend itself to backing up and causing floods and damaging property. Right. And there in Waipahu just yesterday I witnessed 18, 19 shopping carts laying at the bank of the stream and it's overgrown and represents danger and high range. Well, there's potholes also. Potholes. Potholes like, for example, I live in a urban part of downtown, in Palo Alto Valley. And so I take my family to and from around to work and so forth. And I have to use one road all the time, maybe three, four times a day. And it's called principle. Okay. And that's right. adjacent to City Hall. There's potholes there right in the backyard of the mayor. And he won't repair it. Imagine, he has to go through that place and he doesn't do anything. Like if we had Mayor Fossey again the next day we'll be covered. Yeah. Well, there's something to be said about this and when you denounce, your organization denounced Bill 3, CD1. The removal of City Council is one of the points they raised in the present law in overseeing the administration's revenue and cost financial analysis and future budget projects for the mass transportation of city rail, thus resulting in the City Council not being financially accountable. Two, eliminating the City Council and conducting public hearings. So you're saying that with all of this your objection is that this is a reality is that they don't have to have a hearing. They don't have to have a hearing at all. So how would we as taxpayers and our representative get to because the state legislators wouldn't be privy to this information either, right? Right. In fact, the state legislators were frustrated. They couldn't get Bill, Senate Bill 1183 pass because they didn't get accurate information from the mayor. It wasn't just people disagreeing or not wanting to give in a cave-in. They just wouldn't know what they were caving in to. My other occupation previously was a budget analyst in the state government and also in the private sector. How can I put together a budget for expenditures if I don't give if not given any accurate figures? And this is the case in terms of the House representative and the state Senate didn't get accurate figures. And then how does one gauge how the money is being spent? That seems to be would be another loss through this bill. We wouldn't be able to ask any questions. Yeah. And this information wouldn't be available to us. It's a defiance of democracy. Think about it. So what is your opinion of the state Senate and do you think the governor has cause or someone will show cause to have a special session to address this? What's your thought on our insight? Well, look at it politically. If the governor was to call for a special session he would be in trouble because the House and the Senate kind of agree. And then he would have to prove that he'd be the nice son-in-law. He would only have concrete accountability for natural accountability from the mayor. You know. And then he's going to get blamed for it. It costs us thousands of dollars for a special session. Well, let's keep hold of that thought because there's other questions about that. Would it be foolhardy for the governor to have a special session if he intends to run for governor? Is it possible that Kirk might want to run for governor? Yes. Let me share with you. We're going to take a break here. We're taking a short break and I'm Carol Cox. This is Eyes on Hawaii on the ThinkTech Live Streaming Network series. We're talking with Mr. Rotam about lacking of financial accountability and scrutiny in the City Council Bill 3, CD1 on funding on the Honolulu Rapid Rail Transit Project. We'll be back in a minute so stay tuned for more of the story. Most of Hawaii is my mainland every Friday at 3 p.m. on ThinkTech Hawaii. We talk about things of interest to those of us who live here and my past blogs can be found at kawelukas.com. Okay. I didn't listen. We're back. We're live. I'm Carol Cox. This is Eyes on Hawaii on the ThinkTech Live Streaming Network series talking about the financial lack of accountability and scrutiny in City Council Bill 3, CD1 on funding for the Rail Rapid Transit Project. So my guest again is Mr. Rotam and former City Councilman and State Senator. We left off it before the break talking about the Governor's this debate that he will haul a special session. Is that likely? I don't think so. If he be wise politically he would not do so because he doesn't have the background information either and he's going to be accused that if he doesn't succeed in terms of coming up with finances for the rail to the Association of the State Legislature then he's going to be look furnished. Now I know these are separate bodies the CD1 and the Bill 3 wouldn't apply. The Governor wouldn't have much to say over the accountability public hearings at the City Council level but knowing all this do you think this should be a factor that he consider that Bill 3 and 42 might be introduced and passed and then therefore he agrees with the legislators to grant the money or give pass it. Is that going to leave the public going to? Well let me put it this way we all know that the Mayor Cardwell is trying to leverage the Legislature and the Governor by calling it bluff in terms I'm going to increase public taxes commercially and also residentially. Okay. We should not fall to that bluff basically. He has to be accountable to have public hearings on a Saturday so that we can call it to the table because we all know that homeowners cannot afford increasing public taxes when over 60% of homeowners on the island of Oahu are senior citizens you know what would happen to them increasing taxes is to pay for the rail in addition is that none of them will have to sell their homes or have more of a homeless problem. Where are they going to go? And there are seniors and readjusting and traveling abroad to some other state that seems to be a big problem. And in fact you know what happened in the communities that I reside in and this is the urban area or even outside of the urban area there are children who are dog children and grandchildren moving back with their parents now if they can't afford every tax they all have to sell the homes or they can where are they going to go? They become more of financial burden on the state and the city. And I was talking to someone they said if they were to raise a taxes because of their retirement their situation they would have to take out equity a reverse mortgage or whatever you call it some financial arrangement if they desire to stay here live beyond that now I'm homeless. And in fact you know who would be the game? The financial institutions. The winners could kind of work for territorial savings. Territorial savings. So they're going to gain. So in the backdrop you'll see a number of pictures we put together on the rail that have taken over the years of this development. And you see it increasingly coming in parts. Now for example out at Banana Patch there's a humongous mound of soil there that there's a big debate because of the contaminants and who's responsible they haven't addressed that. So how can this and many other concerns of environmental let's say just to get from the area at the stadium down through Dillingham and all there's many pitfalls and there's lead at the community college grounds which may grow that direction may be impacted. There's contaminants at 925 Dillingham the satellite city hall we know all of these things and in the evil lay there's the gas pro site millions of pounds of tar-like substance on the ground that was pumped in. How are we going to price tag on that because it's an unknown. Well here's the complex thing about it I remember when I was a state senator and I was chairman for environmental protection committee I give you an example in the intersection there were two gasoline stations one across the other both were vacant they had to recondition the soil in order to put another building or do something on top of it the U.S.T. the underground stores leaked. Right and so what happened low and behold the two sites had different procedures in terms of how to clean the site. There's nothing concrete. Let me ask you something and I don't expect you to have all the details but just your opinion do you believe that any or much of what degree of projects have been unaddressed because the mayor needs to show that he has some money to the feds. Do you believe that any of our daily activities are infrastructure problems and streets and all have been held off the work on them so that they could show that they have money in hand or have this money been diverted. I know that money has been transferred I've been a budget analyst it depends on how loose the budget is compared to where the American move money around. Like for example you have a part of money budget for roads he'll move some of that money for repair maintenance to where the roads were damaged with the rail for example right they had to dig up in terms of the rail area so he'll move that money that was needed in other areas and he'll put it there. Now let's go back to this KG city council we saw now a shake up and there's a few players in there that causes me concern because it seems that they're not acting independently to represent me as for example as my senator my city councilman Ron Menor very disappointed in his actions because it seems that whatever the mayor wishes for Ron Menor is there to accommodate him is it my perception or is it a reality that he has this change of powers in the city council was it part related to this rail do you believe? Yes it was structured by the mayor Kurt Caldwell because he knew he had problems with the leadership of Ernie Martin specifically with the rail they questioned everything in the budget so he wanted to be structured now you got in terms of Ron Menor's chair and then you got anderson in the windward side you got Brendan Elefante he also have Joey Manahan and Joey by the way is the chairman for the budget committee he's the one that's opening the doors for the mayor to have bills of legislation. Why now you overlooked one there's Kimberly Pine team player is that the team captain I call the Ra Ra for Mayor Caldwell right when we look at all this how can their conscience serve them or how can they sleep with themselves at night time when we see just an example the zoo no accreditation the animals being treated improperly we spend millions on fixing the rhino pond holding area and it's not working they can't live with themselves well basically they don't have sound basis of public being a public servant that's what I would call when I was in the legislature for 28 years I always had to remind myself I'm a public servant I must do justice for my constituents and the state of Hawaii and my basis of that foundation was the constitution in the United States you know I was a history buff to go to intimate school and also to high school public schools and I studied the forms of government and being called brainwashed I believe this is supposed to be a people's government not a dictatorship so in a nutshell what does this mean for all of us should we be worried or is a storm blown over we should be worried we should demand public hearings on a Saturday morning let's get to that real quick the normal meetings now where public participation can be observed is held on a week day week day in the morning in the morning taxes and we have to go to work so we can attend the hearings of the meeting in a testimony but it's not the same basically how are you going to make it known that you mean business when you just send out a written testimony basically and what they do they put your written testimony and they put it aside because when you have your person at public hearings you can have eye contact with the council and that means a lot the body language how does one contact your organization that the association you call me Rod Tan my cell number is 808 216 5454 you call me from 7 o'clock in the morning all the way to 10 o'clock at night real quickly bill 42 you wrote the FTA the federal transportation authority and could quickly can you tell us that you were raising and you raised nine points and give us an idea of what it was asking for an audit to the federal government we're going to be sending it out this week there's no financial accountability right now and the city has not done an audit on the rail itself and there's a lot of questions to be answered okay the public wants disclosure on the cost details in the present future the cost details of the construction costs administration costs and maintenance costs so I really believe that this is a good start and people can contact you oh yes please do I look forward to it we welcome you to join us also too Rod Tan thank you for joining me I appreciate it but what I will tell you folks is that there's a lot of things that we need to flesh out here the public we should not be looking at bill 3 and approving it the city council should not so if you're inclined to contact your city councilman and give them your thoughts and share their thoughts so that's what I would say okay we're out of time and we'll have to wrap it up I'm Carol Cox this is eyes on Hawaii on the think tech live streaming network series we've been talking with Mr. Rod Tan bill 3 CD 1 on funding for the Honolulu Rapid Transit Rail project thank you Mr. Tan thank you very much I appreciate it thanks to our broadcast engineer Ray Sangalung our floor manager Robert McLean and to Jay Fadel our executive producer who puts it all together and thanks to you our viewers and listeners if you want to get on our email and social media program advisors click the link on thinktechhawaii.com if you'd like to be a guest or an underwriter volunteer or if you want to join us in our downtown studio contact Jay at thinktechhawaii.com if you want the links to our live streams our previous broadcasts or our Ustream TV or youtube.com just go to thinktechhawaii.com go there to our web facebook page and tell them you like us we'd love you to like us at 12 noon for more on the eyes of Hawaii on thinktech I'm Carol Cox Aloha