Members of an expert committee charged with picking the technology for Oahu's $3.8 billion mass transit system met for the first time Friday at Mission Memorial Auditorium in Honolulu.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s administration initially stated the panel of four engineers and a former mass transit manager would meet in secret, but reversed course after several lawmakers objected.

Meanwhile, it's the opinion of city lawyers that whatever the committee decides will be binding because of the way the resolution that gave birth to the panel was worded.

"I've been told by the Corporation Council that your panel is not advisory, that your selection because it says ‘select’, your selection becomes a final selection," said City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, one of about ten people who testified before committee members.

“It's very hard for me as a public official to accept that,” Kobayashi added. “I believe that elected officials have the authority to decide how to spend taxpayers’ dollars.”

A city lawyer also told committee members that they could not consult with one another because they would be reviewing proprietary information from eleven companies that are vying for the mass transit project.

“That's an unfortunate part of the process,” said committee chairman Ron Tober, the former Chief Executive Officer of the rail transit system in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"Essentially it's five different completely independent votes with no ability to cross fertilize and use each other's expertise to our advantage," said University of Hawaii Professor Panos Prevedouros, another committee member.

Both Tober and Prevedouros stated that maintenance costs for the fixed guideway system would be a key factor in deciding what technology to use. The half percent transit tax passed by the state legislature expires in December of 2022, and Tober says there needs to be a funding mechanism in place to cover repairs and upkeep.

“No public transportation system anywhere that I'm aware of…is able to cover all of its costs from out of the fare boxes,” said the committee’s chairman.

Prevedouros believes the key to a successful fixed guideway system for Oahu is flexibility. He dubbed light rail “19th century” technology that doesn’t translate very well into modern lifestyles.

“People do a multitude of activities, so a linear system with twenty stations is probably the least appropriate of what we need,” said the professor.

Tober added that Hawaii lawmakers should also prepare themselves for the possibility of cost overruns. The south corridor of the Charlotte Area Transportation System, a light rail design that Tober was in charge of until his retirement, was $36 million over budget as of October of last year.

“We bid construction contracts during a period when steel and cement prices across the world were spiking,” said Tober. “That impacted us greatly.”

The five member panel is expected to meet again next week where they will likely choose a technology for Oahu’s mass transit.

Even if one of the City Council’s nine members introduced a bill to override the committee’s decision, it’s not likely there would be five votes to pass it. If such a bill was to pass and Mayor Hannemann vetoed it, it would take six council members to override.

Three Council members, Donovan Dela Cruz, Charles Djou and Ann Kobayashi voted against the creation of the technology committee.

Andrew may be reached at apereira@khon2.com or ph. 591-4263.