To the Honolulu City Council Members:

I am a resident of St. Louis Heights and a volunteer for Stop Rail Now (see http://www.StopRailNow.com )

I vehemently oppose the Charter Amendment you are considering known as Resolution 7-90 to create a public transit authority because we do not need an appointed authority that has taxation power.

And I oppose the insidious manner in which you are trying to include in some version of this resolution a way for the public to have a vote on the $5 billion rail system currently being forced upon the citizens of Oahu.

As elected representatives for the island of Oahu I ask you to stop fooling around and find out, once and for all if the people support this project. Why make this process so convoluted? Unless, of course, you already know what the outcome of a straightforward question will be.

The majority of the council and the mayor have made it quite clear until recently that they were not in favor of the public voting on the rail question. But that position seemed to change as the StopRailNow’s citizen petition drive was getting closer to putting on the ballot a proposed ordinance saying that Honolulu’s mass transit shall not include trains or a rail system. With 49,041 people on Oahu signing the petition in just 3 months, it is apparent that a vote on rail is important to a lot of people.

After it became clear that many people want to vote on this issue, instead of doing everything possible to let them vote, the council and mayor have now devised a way to create a Charter Amendment that will successfully silence the public’s voice, once and for all.

Whatever happened to the democratic process?

Why can’t the council and the mayor just be honest about not really wanting the public to vote on this project?

How this Charter Amendment would override the people’s vote is as follows:

• 1) If the majority of the people vote against your Charter Amendment thus saying they don’t want a rail system, that vote won’t stop the project. A Charter Amendment that doesn’t pass is not a law.

• 2) If the Charter Amendment in favor of rail passes and the StopRailNow ordinance opposing rail gets on the November ballot and also passes, the Charter Amendment for the rail system would trump the ordinance against rail.

As you can see, in either of these scenarios, we end up with a $5 billion rail system even if the majority of the people vote against it.

Stop acting like you’re giving the people a voice, when your not. Stop making the process so confusing that no one can understand it. Start acting in the best interest of the people you represent.

Let the people vote.

Jay McWilliams, who is co-owner and vice president of Hawaii Reporter, was testifying as an individual. She may be reached via email at: mailto:jay@hawaiireporter.com

ELECTIONS 2008...