2009-02-AU Limited Scope Performance Audit of the Highway Fund

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Chapter 4: CHALLENGES FACING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS and may promote a continued misunderstanding that the disputed roads issue still exists." However, the audit found that: "[T]he conditions, maintenance activity and evaluation of these disputed roadways were similar to those owned outright by the city, as documented in the 2005 island -wide inventory." The Oahu scenario further exemplifies the need for Hawai'i County to establish a complete and accurate inventory of all County roads; address and resolve legal issues involving roads -in- limbo; and develop clear policies and criteria for County acceptance of road ownership and maintenance responsibilities including roads -in- limbo. A District Overseer reported that road paving and resurfacing work has been performed by County personnel with County equipment on certain subdivision roads that are privately owned. If so, this raises the question of whether such work constitutes proper expenditure of the Highway Fund. The County needs to address whether costs of manpower and equipment utilized on privately owned roads need to be reimbursed to the Highway Fund. Again, the lack of a clear and consistently applied written policy and procedure as well as standard criteria for determining which subdivision roads receive County road maintenance may result in public perception of impropriety and favoritism, or possible litigation arising out of the lack of consistently applied criteria and claims of misuse of Highway Fund revenues. The Hawai'i State Legislative Reference Bureau stated in its 1989 report entitled Roads -in- Limbo: An Analysis of State - County Jurisdictional Dispute that: "Today, the dispute continues, as it will likely continue twenty years from now if no serious consideration is given to the problem and a concerted but cooperative effort is made on the part of all involved to deal with the real issues. Only if the principals involved adopt an attitude of mutually striving to arrive at a consensus of what has to be done rather than one of saying the responsibility lies elsewhere, will the parties have made the first genuine attempts at resolving a situation whose correction is long overdue." The County should consider the impact of this lingering state of limbo on its ability to attain the Highway Fund's mission statement: "To maintain and continually make improvements to the County's roadway transportation system to permit the safe and efficient movement of people and goods around the island." This inaction on the part of prior County Administrations points to the lack of strategic and operational planning and vision to translate the Highway Fund mission statement into relevant and measurable objectives and action plans to address and resolve the roads -in- limbo issue. While roads -in -limbo remains an issue State -wide, the newly elected Mayor's mantra of "Together We Can" is what is needed to resolve what the Hawai'i State Legislative Reference Bureau has called "a situation whose correction is long overdue." 24