EDITOR’S NOTE: Former Gov. Ben Cayetano issued this editorial to the Star-Advertiser after the daily paper’s editorial section attacked his release of several internal emails from the FTA critical of the city’s planned rail project. Cayetano is running for Honolulu mayor.
BY FORMER GOV. BEN CAYETANO – Since when is telling the public the truth a disservice? The Star-Advertiser editors’ complaint that I “cherry-picked” five emails from roughly 500,000 documents to “turn public opinion against the (rail) project – and simply to boost my candidacy for mayor” – is absurd.
First, the public needs no spin from me or anyone else to turn against rail. They have already turned, according to the Star-Advertiser’s own poll (“Rail Support Falls” February 12, 2012). Another major poll shows even greater opposition.
Second, your editorial ignores the difference between the candid utterances of career FTA officials believing that they are writing privately to each other, and the fawning grandstanding of their boss Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. In testifying before Senator Dan Inouye’s Appropriations Committee, LaHood revealed how little he knows about the City’s rail project when he said that it “will deliver people all over the island” – an astonishing statement that even Inouye should know is not true.
Third, criticizing me for “cherry-picking is like faulting a gold miner for not showing others the tons of gravel he had to sort through to find a few nuggets of gold. And make no mistake, these emails are nuggets in the eyes of anyone who wants to know what FTA staffers, not their politically appointed bosses, think of the City’s rail project, including the City’s “lousy practices of public manipulation.”
Fourth, you have the 500,000 page Administrative Record which we delivered to your office. Perhaps if you ever get around to reviewing it, you will “cherry pick” your own nuggets and whether they are pro-rail or anti-rail we hope you will reveal them to the public.
Fifth, I find it ironic that your editors would complain about my efforts to turn public opinion against rail. The editorial in question is just the latest of many editorials in which the Star-Advertiser defended or sang the praise of the City’s proposed elevated, heavy rail project. I thought it was a “disservice” when the Star-Advertiser quoted Secretary LaHood’s off the cuff statement that rail would improve traffic without mentioning that the FTA and the City’s own experts have acknowledged that rail – even if it worked as planned – would not reduce the current level of traffic congestion.
Finally, the Star-Advertiser is accurate when it implies that my mayoral campaign has been helped by these “smoking gun” emails. This is because the public understands what it means when FTA staffers talk about the City’s “lousy practices of public manipulation” and predict that the City will find itself in “a pickle” by rushing to start construction before it can be ready and has secured federal funding.
As the state’s only major daily newspaper, the Star-Advertiser has at least a moral obligation to investigate and give the public both the pros and cons of the rail project. Although news stories about the number of seats in a train are interesting – they pale when compared to the big unanswered questions about the project. How does HART justify awarding multi-million dollar rail contracts when no Full Funding Agreement has been reached and approved by Congress? What will the City do if none or only part of the federal funds is approved by Congress? What will the City do if it loses the lawsuit now pending in federal court? What will the City do if funding runs out and the project is only partly completed?
The City, HART, the Mayor, the City Council and Senator Inouye have all been asked but still remain silent on these major questions. The Star-Advertiser itself has done nothing to get answers. Rather then complain about “cherry picking” the Star-Advertiser should press its reporters to get answers to the questions. The public deserves answers.
It’s nice to Ben back on the political field again, somehow I don’t believe his concern of the rail is genuine at all. We’ve seen this before when H3 was in the works, now we are all enjoying (H3) it very much. This is merely a campaign spin and some of us are sucked in it mercilessly!
Ben as the Republican candidate…now I’ve seen everything.
I imagine Eko2011 and Keith are full on democrats and probably union members. The only people to benefit from the rail are a couple thousand union workers and the rest of Oahu’s 800,000 residents will have to put up with increased congestion, bad roads, and increased taxes to support these few union worker jobs (if they don’t lose them to more competitive mainland companies). The rail does not take people where they need to go, few people will ride it and leave their cars at home and take the bus when they get off the rail to get to their jobs. The city & county can’t even repair our current roads or run an efficient bus system and you expect them to do a better job on the rail. Why not just use the zipper lane exclusively for buses, buy another 50 to 100 buses and let people ride them from the Ewa plain into town efficiently. The zipper lane is hardly used now and could be further expanded without a 5 Billion dollar price tag. People supporting rail are self serving as they only think they will get the big (OVERPRICED) contract to do the work while the rest of us pay for it. Just another example of the governments total corruption. Ayn Rand never would have thought that her book Atlas Shrugged foretold the future. All you have to do is look at the corruption at every level of government and the unbelievable union corruption and you can see that she saw it coming. Stop the rail and just fix the roads. While Ben may not be able to fix everything if all he does is stop this ridiculous rail I am voting for him whether you want to call him a Republican or a Democrat he is least is INTELLIGENT.
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