A seemingly simple quest to take a closer look at contracts related to the city’s $5.5 billion rail project has been unusually complicated.

After learning that the City & County of Honolulu has awarded nearly $5 million since 2005 on public outreach for the project, Civil Beat was interested to know who was receiving this money. We were especially curious about the biggest recipient: Lychee Production Inc.

We found the company’s “principal,” Laura Pennington, a one-time campaign aide to former Mayor Mufi Hannemann, but she won’t talk.

As we’ve previously reported, most of the 14 companies hired to do the work have no websites or listed phone numbers, and those that were tracked down were reluctant to talk about their contracts.

Because the work was subcontracted out by the three companies hired to manage the rail project, the outreach contracts aren’t directly with the city, although taxpayer dollars are being spent. While the city’s Rapid Transit Division says it oversees the work being done, it has told us the contracts and any progress reports aren’t available for review by the public.

Some of the subcontractors are required to submit monthly reports to their contacting company. Honolulu Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, a longtime critic of the project, has raised concerns about a lack of transparency surrounding contractors and subcontractors hired for rail. She says details are lacking in the limited progress reports she has seen. One company, Kobayashi said, has submitted what appears to be a xeroxed copy of the same report for several months.

(Public outreach is a required component of the Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project. Because the project will be funded in part by $1.55 billion in federal monies, the city is required to go into the community to inform the public about the project.)

Lychee Production Inc. was awarded a $1.74 million contract by PB Americas in September 2007 to handle “public outreach” for the rail project. Part of that work included “preparing an ‘Idiot’ version of the EIS document” as a DVD — which cost $204,000 to make — in addition to attending community meetings and co-producing monthly television spots to be aired on public access television, according to the contract. The company was again awarded a contract in 2009, worth $201,437, to handle “public involvement” by Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Civil Beat obtained a copy of the 11-page contract between Lychee and PB Americas for the $1.74 million job, which shows the company was paid $17,138 a month. The contract lists a Honolulu P.O. Box as Lychee’s business address.

A Google search turned up no references of past work done by Lychee Production. The business was incorporated in January 2007, according to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

A Google search for Laura Pennington, listed as Lychee’s principal in the contract with PB Americas, also doesn’t turn up much. A few archived newspaper articles identify her as a former spokeswoman for Hannemann’s 2004 mayoral campaign along with Elisa Yadao, who received two rail subcontracts worth $364,662 for public involvement and outreach.

Civil Beat tracked down a cell phone number for Pennington. The conversation lasted for about a minute.

After introducing myself as a reporter with Civil Beat, I asked Pennington if I could take her to coffee and talk story about the outreach work she’s done for the rail project.

After a pause and asking me to repeat what I’m interested in, Pennington said: “Anything related to the city’s rail project has to go through the chief information officer, Jeanne Mariani Belding. Do you have her contact information?”

I acknowledged knowing Belding, but explained that I was interested in chatting directly with some of the subcontractors. I asked if she could talk at all with me about her contracts.

She simply said, “No.”

Civil Beat is awaiting response from the city’s Department of Transportation Services to a public-records request for correspondence and expense records related to Lychee Production and/or Laura Pennington.