Supporters and opponents of Honolulu’s slated $3.7 billion elevated commuter rail project have accused each other of misleading the public.
Honolulu hopes to begin work on the 20-mile project connecting East Kapolei and Ala Moana in 2009, with the first segment opening in 2012. An anti-rail group is collecting signatures to put it on the November ballot.
A recently formed pro-rail group called Go Rail Go accused the main anti-rail group, Stop Rail Now, of distributing misleading and deceptive information to obtain signatures. The ads claimed local anti-rail groups are receiving support from Mainland right-wing special interests—a charge Stop Rail Now denies. Go Rail Go launched a website (www.gorailgo.org) for people who signed the anti-rail petition and now want to remove their names.
The city and Mayor Mufi Hannemann also responded to the opposition, by releasing an ad which read, "Our entire congressional delegation, governor, state legislature, city council and my administration, have moved forward with this project."
On a KHVH 830-AM radio program, Hawaii governor Linda Lingle discredited the ad by declaring her administration has never voiced an opinion about the train.
"I've never taken a public position on the project," she said. "No one in my administration has ever taken a public position on it, so to say in an ad that we're all moving forward on it including the governor and so on, I thought was misleading."
Lingle also requested both parties inform the public more objectively.
Honolulu spent $1.4 million in taxpayer money on public relations and outreach efforts related to the rail project from August 2005 through February 2008. The week of June 23, Hannemann spent his campaign money on several ads attacking the Stop Rail Now movement.
"The legal case is for constructive fraud, which is a polite way of saying, 'You're misleading everybody,' " said Stop Rail Now proponent Cliff Slater.
Stop Rail Now threatened to sue the city July 2, on the grounds that the pro-rail ad campaign is misleading and inaccurate, if it does not make amends by July 7. It also said it will seek a restraining order preventing further pro-rail advertisements.
"Maybe it's by accident. We don't know, but whatever,” Slater said. "Take it off the air and spend an equal amount of time correcting all the errors."
