As general manager for Honolulu's rail transit project, I have overseen our extensive and unprecedented efforts to provide accurate information to the public, and to review concerns about how the project will affect O'ahu. We take these responsibilities very seriously, and are committed to working with the community to ensure this project is successful and will benefit our island home for many years.

We are carefully reviewing and responding to hundreds of written comments we received regarding the project's draft Environmental Impact Statement, in full compliance with state and federal law. We are also compiling additional information to more fully explain how earlier decisions were made, and will include this in the final environmental document.

For example, some property owners and others have suggested changes to the rail route, or expressed a preference for a street-level transit system downtown, rather than the planned elevated system. We respect these preferences, but it should be understood that the street-level option was carefully evaluated and presented to the City Council approximately three years ago. The council selected the present alignment after a series of public hearings with ample opportunity for the public and various special interests to voice concerns.

The city has gone to great lengths to ensure transparency and public accountability regarding this project. For example, there was no legal requirement that the draft EIS be publicly released prior to the November 2008 election, in which voters authorized a steel-wheel-on-steel-rail-transit system. And there was no requirement to release the hundreds of comments we later received in response to that report, prior to completion of our detailed responses. We did so, however, because it was the right thing to do.

We also prepared newsletters and DVDs to explain technical issues in ways that are more user-friendly for people who don't have the time or inclination to wade through hundreds of pages of technical documents. This innovative multimedia approach to explaining issues and conclusions in the environmental review process recently won an Ilima Award from the International Association of Business Communicators-Hawai'i as one of the best communication tools. The Hawai'i chapter of the American Planning Association also commended the DVD as the first in Hawai'i created specifically to help the public understand information in a draft EIS.

We have also held special public workshops in neighborhoods that will be served by rail transit so that people who live there have opportunities to help design transit stations and receive answers to any questions they may have. While many residents have attended and voiced appreciation for these efforts, a few critics who have publicly complained about a lack of access to information did not bother to show up, and had not attended any of the public hearings held earlier at Honolulu Hale when the City Council made important decisions on the project over the past three years. As Council Chairman Todd Apo pointed out in an Advertiser article on May 4, "A lot of those so-called issues that people want to re-examine, they've been looked at."

I would like to emphasize that we are working quickly and efficiently to move forward with this long-overdue project, but are also carefully complying with federal and state environmental requirements. We designed a schedule that minimizes delays, because inflation alone can add million of dollars to the cost of a project of this size. Time not wasted is money saved. The end result will be a high-quality rail transit system that the people of O'ahu deserve. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye has described the city's rail transit initiative as a "now or never" project. And in these challenging economic times, we couldn't agree more.