Questions
By B.J. Reyes
Mayoral candidate Kirk Caldwell, the former city managing director, again is calling for more details about the bus rapid transit plan advocated by campaign rival Ben Cayetano.
Caldwell on Thursday issued a four-page list of detailed questions that he feels the former governor and anti-rail candidate should answer in order to fully inform the public about what the alternative would be if the $5.27 billion rail project is killed. Both are trying to unseat Mayor Peter Carlisle.
The list of questions here:
Caldwell Questions
Said Caldwell:
“I’m asking Ben Cayetano to answer these questions — to provide these details that are so important to our voting community. No jokes Ben. No smart remarks. No truth squad. No more promises of more later. Ben, the voters deserve answers and they deserve them now. …
“We’ve been waiting, now, to hear about Ben Cayetano’s bus rapid transit plan. Here’s the sum total of his plan — an op-ed. We’ve heard statements, when he goes around the community or when he makes a speech, but the only thing we see form Ben Cayetano is a page and half of a plan. That’s not a plan. That’s a disaster, plain and simple.”
When presented with the questions, Cayetano responded:
“If the $10 million 2003 Environmental Impact Statement approved by the (Federal Transit Administration) and me, as governor, which concluded that BRT was superior to rail is not enough, Kirk should ask Parsons Brinkerhoff, the consultant, to reimburse the City. It must be frustrating for Kirk — after his special interest supporters and political hit men spent hundreds of thousands for radio and TV ads trying to discredit me — to find himself still trailing badly in the polls.”
Carlisle last week assailed Cayetano’s proposal, saying the former governor appeared to now be embracing a segment of a plan he had dismissed 10 years ago when he was in office.
Political Radar
June 15th, 2012 at 10:55 am
All being Lawyers, they should know the answers before they ask the questions.
If they don’t know the answers, Why ask the question?
June 15th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Who cares what Kirk Caldwell asks? All voters have to know is that when he said Lets build Rail better, he meant to build it all over the island. So, now there is effectively no real difference between Kirk and Carlisle, who both don’t want to just build the current over-priced hideous boondoggle, but want to build it all over the island.
Kirk, and all those CEOs earning multi-millions in annual salaries, have no feeling for the taxpayers. Oh, i forgot, in 2010, it came out that he really wasn’t a real property taxpayer due to his historic home designation. That leaves the rest of us stuck with the tab.
June 16th, 2012 at 11:53 am
No one is blaming hanneman for bringing this idea to the table. How come? Rail will look like a toy train on a table top.
hanneman looks down on people since he went to Harvard, I went to “Heartbreak Ridge”. hanneman is running for Hirono’s seat. Once in office, he will say I helped build rail and with that Hawaii will go bankrupt.