Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
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.
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Here's The San Jose Mercury News Version ... Yup.. The more perspective we can get on this , the better ...
DUMP DAVI$
GO SIMON