Facts Kept Secret In City's Fact-Finding Rail Trip

Photo of Ansaldo Honolulu proposal

It has been more than six weeks since Honolulu City Council members Breene Harimoto and Ernie Martin returned from a fact-finding rail trip to California and Copenhagen, Denmark.

Yet they still have not finished a report detailing their findings, and they haven't submitted their expenses from the taxpayer-funded trip.

The council members have repeatedly pushed back their planned release of a report about the trip amid pressure to stay quiet given rail-related protests that are under way.

Both Martin and Harimoto have told Civil Beat that city lawyers warned them about the trip, which Harimoto pitched as a way to learn from cities that have done business with Italian rail manufacturer Ansaldo. The trip was planned after Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle announced in March that the city wanted to award to Ansaldo a $1.1 billion contract to design, build, operate and maintain the city's $5.3 billion rail plan.