HONOLULU -- A Honolulu City Council member Thursday lashed out at Mayor Mufi Hannemann's administration. Councilman Charles Djou said the administration changed the city's $10 million transit contract to make sure a lucrative subcontract was awarded to a longtime friend of the mayor's.

The firm of Parsons Brinckerhoff won the bid to help the city analyze transit alternatives. Parsons chose Kitty Lagareta of Communications Pacific and Ruth Limtiaco as subcontractors to do community outreach for the transit project.

But then, the contract changed to give Joe Pickard, a longtime Hannemann friend, the bulk of the community outreach work for close to $900,000. Lagareta's and Limtiaco's contract were reduced to only $25,000 each.

"It is a concern because we worked very hard on this project," said Bruce Coppa, of Communications Pacific.

Djou grilled city officials on reasons for the changes.

"If we are going to undertake the largest public project in the history of the state of Hawaii, let's make sure we are doing it right," Djou said. "And, I just simply think we are not doing it right, right now. And that is my problem. And you are not giving me satisfactory answers. You're not giving me comfort that politics did not play a part in this."

"Councilman Djou, we have done this procurement exactly the same fashion as any engineering, architectural and design work using federal funds," City Transit Project Manager Toru Hamayasu said.

The city's project managers said the changes were made when the city better understood the scope of the work.

Earlier, the mayor wrote to an angry Lagareta, saying she should have known nothing was official until the contract was signed. The mayor's letter said no laws or rules were broken in the transit contract.

Parson Brinckerhoff will hold its first meetings in mid-December for the public to weigh in on what it thinks are the best alternatives for improving traffic.

The mayor favors a rail transit system. Other alternatives, such as improving the bus system or doing nothing new at all, will be considered.

Parsons said final selection is not scheduled until early 2007 when Oahu residents will already be paying a tax surcharge for transit.