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Posted on 05/24/2002 8:26:03 AM PDT by farmfriend
Edited on 04/12/2004 5:36:49 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
In a tearful outburst to a legislative committee Thursday, a suspended state technology director charged that Gov. Gray Davis' top computer aide "leveraged the governor's name in a bad light" and may have intimidated a potential political donor in the computer industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
No folks this wasn't Argentina, or Iraq, or Cuba this was the State of California in the Year of our Lord 2002.
I'm sure our Glorious Leader, the Shah of Sacramento, the Fuehrer of Fundraising, Idi Amin Davis, had nothing at all to do with THAT.
He also denied that Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, or Polanco's son, Oracle employee Richard Polanco Jr., had influenced his actions.Welcome to the new reality in California: Mexican corrupt politics, and Polanco is the worst of all of them. The guy is nothing more than a thug, and it's no surprise that one of his affirmative action crony hires turns out to be a crook. Or that his kid is involved, or his grandmother, or his brother-in-law, or whatever. The guy is nothing more than the low rent leader of a Mexican crime family.He acknowledged the elder Polanco is his mentor, and said, "I only mentor his son when he calls me for advice."
Both Polancos have surfaced in the course of the investigation.
The elder Polanco called Department of Finance Director Tim Gage to set up a meeting with department officials and Logicon Inc., a state computer consultant the auditor says stands to make $28.5 million from the deal. Sen. Polanco has declined to comment on the matter.
By the way, remember all the screaming about Chuck Quackenbush and his hounding out of government and the state by all the self righteous garbage like Jackie Speier and Fred Keeley? This is way worse. Where's all the indignation from these Paragons of Virtue?
I see several other papers have reports on this hearing.
We probably ought to capture them so we can see how
active the Editor's have been with their pencils of bias!
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calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register |
I saw that and had the same thought that you did. But there could be an alternative expanation :
The operators in the California ISO had failed to buy enough power and decided to do a local rolling blackout!
LOL!
"We are experiencing technical political problems. Please stand by."
SACRAMENTO - Emotionally frazzled and often in tears, the man at the center of the Oracle contract debacle told state lawmakers Thursday that he had been smeared, abused and abandoned by the Davis administration after being suspended for his role in the controversy.
In more than four hours of testimony before a legislative committee, Elias Cortez defended his role in the $95 million to $123 million software agreement that has sparked the resignation of two other top officials.
``I feel I have been not only abandoned by this administration but I have been abused by this process,'' said Cortez, the head of California's Department of Information Technology who was placed on paid leave three weeks ago.
Cortez's statements followed two days of marathon testimony from other Davis aides who largely blamed the technology director for having pushed the no-bid Oracle deal the state is now trying to invalidate.
While conceding that he had been a champion for the idea, Cortez accused both his subordinates and superiors of dropping the ball and turning what he thought should have been a money-saving deal into a money-losing scandal.
In particular, Cortez lashed out at Arun Baheti, the governor's head of e-government who resigned this month when it was learned that he had taken a $25,000 check last year from an Oracle lobbyist after Baheti had helped the company seal the deal. Baheti, who appeared before lawmakers Wednesday, conceded that he had made a mistake and knowingly broken the Democratic governor's ethics rules by taking the money and sending it to the Davis campaign.
``I believe Arun Baheti caused major damage to DOIT's reputation,'' Cortez told the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
Trading barbs
Cortez accused Baheti of being a control freak who inappropriately tried to use his ties to the governor to boost his own power and influence.
At one point, Cortez said, Baheti tried to force a San Jose businessman whom he did not name to withdraw his political support for a Republican candidate who was challenging Gov. Gray Davis.
``He told me in confidence that he got a strange call from Arun about -- you know -- whose side are you on?'' Cortez said. ``I was shocked. But this was the kind of mode of operation that this person had.''
Baheti denied making any such call and said he did not know what Cortez was talking about.
``Based on Eli's multiple, conflicting testimony and what appears to be an emotional breakdown, he may just be saying things,'' Baheti said Thursday.
In his third appearance before the committee, Cortez stopped frequently to wipe away tears as he expressed frustration at being denied legal help by the Davis administration.
Steve Maviglio, the governor's press secretary, said Cortez was not entitled to a taxpayer-financed lawyer and said the administration had cut off contact with the technology chief.
``We feel it would be inappropriate,'' Maviglio said. ``We could be accused of trying to influence his testimony.''
Since news of the contract broke more than six months ago, Cortez has been more closely associated with the deal than any other state official.
`Taking the lead'
The onetime San Bernardino chief information officer has repeatedly tried to distance himself from the deal, despite a mounting volume of testimony and written evidence that he was the contract's lead champion.
But Cortez, along with other state officials, signed a key memo recommending the deal that cleared the way for the contract.
Cortez's deputy at the information technology department, Kim Heartley-Humphrey, told lawmakers last week that Cortez had pushed her to keep working on the deal despite her reservations about the contract.
Barry Keene, the former director of the Department of General Services whose department negotiated the contract, also told lawmakers twice that Cortez advocated for the deal more forcefully than any other state official.
And e-mails obtained by the Mercury News and the legislative committee show that other state officials expected that Cortez was ``taking the lead'' on the contract.
But Cortez insisted Thursday that he was not responsible for problems with the contract identified by the state auditor and a previous Mercury News investigation.
He told lawmakers that he did not know about the results of a survey by the information technology department that found only five of 127 state departments polled expressed interest in buying large amounts of Oracle software.
When confronted by testimony from other state officials that he had discussed the survey at a meeting a week before the contract was signed last May, Cortez said he did not think the survey was relevant.
Nothing like a good backstabbing to cause a fell to want to sing. C'mon Cortez. What else do you know?
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