Ben Cayetano says internal FTA emails show how the federal government believed Honolulu officials were dishonest about rail.

In an afternoon press conference at his campaign headquarters, Cayetano and co-plaintiff/campaign co-chair Walter Heen revealed some of the contents of the administrative record they received as part of their lawsuit against the project.

Here are the two most damning excerpts, both from fall 2006:

• “I do not think the FTA should be associated with their lousy practices of public manipulation and we should call them on it.”
• “We seem to be proceeding in the hallowed tradition of Honolulu rapid transit studies: never enough time to do it right, but lots of time to do it over.”

The implications for the lawsuit aren’t immediately clear, but Cayetano and Heen portrayed the revelations as part of a trend of the city not being forthright with the public about the project. They pointed to Kiewit’s $15 million change order, and Managing Director Doug Chin‘s quiet decision to suspend the city’s debt limit as more recent examples.

(Photo from Civil Beat’s Flickr page)