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West Oahu Residents Vent over the Honolulu Rail Gravy Train

Realizing that the Honolulu rail is being built on their backs and at the price of sabotaging their futures, the quality of life for future generations and destroying the aina, west Oahu residents spoke up last evening at a public meeting held by HART about the Ho'opili station. This particular Honolulu rail station is located in the middle of Aloun Farms on land that the late UH professor Goro Uehara, a soil specialist, said was the best farmland in the nation. Between the Honolulu rail and the D R Horton development project, that farmland will be destroyed. That didn't bother the nine Honolulu City Council members, who unanimously voted last month to rezone, clearing the final legislative hurdle for the destruction of that prime ag (agriculture) land.

The meeting, which began at 6:30 pm, lasted an hour.

Here are the first six minutes of video available to Hawaii Political Info:


Doug Matsuoka came in and started filming as the audience, with Uncle Glenn Omilda paving the way, booted the planned program out the window in order to cut to the chase on rail and the D R Horton development.


Chronology of the meeting based on notes by John Bond, who spoke during the meeting:

At 6:30 the Hoopili Station meeting began, with Brennon Morioka as the HART host. Brennon is the deputy executive director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit (HART). He was previously the director of the state of Hawaii Department of Transportation. Uncle Glenn Omilda began objecting to the canned meeting process and then more residents began speaking up. Brennon Morioka valiantly tried to continue with the planned presentation, but graciously gave up and turned the meeting over to the audience. The audience "railed" against the rail, corrupt politicians and greedy land developers.

Doug Matsuoka came in and started video recording and uploading to Livetream just as the audience, with Glenn leading the way, took over the meeting.

John Bond begins speaking at 9:52, saying rail is a fraud and rip-off because it is becoming a big land development and TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) scheme. He says that the City Council was paid off, as was the County Ethics Commission and a lot of the rail votes would be illegal. Brennon says in response to Bond that Rail would be HECO's (Hawaiian Electric Company) second largest customer.

15:00 Brennon tries to answer if the rail votes could be illegal. He says the City Corp Council will decide this, not the County Ethics Commission.

16:29 Glenn asks John Bond to talk about all the burial sites near the Hoopili station.

17:50 John says that Dan Grabauskus (executive director and CEO of HART) would not allow any cultural
monitoring for iwi (bones from Hawaiian burials). This comes up again later and John promises
Brennon that he will send him proof in a letter from Dan Grabauskus to Mike Lee, who is a Hawaiian cultural practitioner.

23:53 Owls and Tom Berg (former City Councilmember who is against the Honolulu Rail) are mentioned.

31:56 Glenn challenges Willy Espero (state senator [D] who represents Ewa Beach, Ocean Pointe, Ewa by Gentry, Iroquois Point & a portion of Ewa Villages), who then says if anyone can show him evidence of illegal activity he will follow up.

33:18 Kioni Dudley brings up the Farmland Impact Rating to Willy Espero and tells him Parsons Brinkerhoff lied.

34:56 Doug Matsuoka gets acknowledged as the "REAL
Media." John writes in his notes that these are all Facebook
informed and organized people who don't trust the FAKE
media anymore who spins the stories to be pro rail, pro developer.

38:09 Willy Espero asks John to present EVIDENCE of iwi in the
West Oahu segment. Michelle asked Willy if he will actually
follow through and Willy then starts wavering (writes John).

40:19 John asks Willy if he wore his Dr. (D R) Horton shirt to work
at the legislature...and didn't he accept money from Dr.
Horton?

41:21 Brennon Morioka says HART does cultural (iwi)
monitoring. John tells him Dan Grabauskus would not allow
cultural monitoring for the West Oahu segment and that
we (Mike Lee) has the letter from Grabauskus not allowing it.
Brennon then says in areas of "high probability" they
will have cultural monitors. I point out that the statement
that there was "nothing there" was a lie and that it's in
the HART EIS (environmental impact statement) documents. Kiewit just digs away and
doesn't WANT to find iwi, John says, because then they would have to stop work—and they aren't going to do that.

43:10 Glenn points out that Mike Lee (the Hawaiian cultural practitioner) has never been consulted by Hoopili.

44:16 John says that Kym Pine and other politicians won't even tell you about these meetings that affect the community and the multi-billion dollar rail project. All they do is hand out certificates and pose for pictures, he states.

45:35 Brennon is asked about meeting minutes and promises they will be posted on the HART website.
(John writes in his notes that it will be interesting to see how ACCURATE they will be.)

46:40 Doug begins wrapping up his Livestream video. https://twitter.com/hdoug

 
Some photos taken before the meeting began:


Links:

Rick Hamada Interviews Tom Berg on Rail Politics under Cover [Hawaii Political Info] Mar 7, 2015

Whistleblower Tells Hawaii to 'Cut the Cord' on Rail [Hawaii Political Info] Feb 13, 2015

Issue: Rail Collection of articles [Hawaii Political Info]