Here's the Mercury News' slant.
Investigators cancel testimony on Oracle
SACRAMENTO - The state attorney general's office Tuesday abruptly postponed grand jury testimony from the lead legislative investigator into California's botched Oracle software deal.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Bakersfield, who led the legislative probe, was scheduled to appear Tuesday as the first witness, but investigators canceled Florez's testimony without explanation.
``It's another bizarre twist in this Oracle debacle,'' said Florez.
Until last week, there were no signs that a criminal investigation into the now-canceled contract was continuing.
The attorney general's office had no comment on the proceedings. In July, when the state rescinded the contract, state officials retained the right to prosecute Oracle and Northrop Grumman, its business partner, if investigations revealed that the companies broke any laws in selling California 270,000 licenses to use Oracle software.
Valued from $95 million to $123 million, the database software contract was initially defended by the Davis administration as a way to save taxpayers millions of dollars. But after a Mercury News investigation, the state auditor found that it would have saddled taxpayers with $41 million in unnecessary software.
The controversy led to the closing of the Department of Information Technology. The hearings put a spotlight on the lobbying practices of Oracle and state lawmakers, and also raised concerns about the role of Gov. Gray Davis' advisers. One accepted a $25,000 campaign contribution from an Oracle lobbyist just before the contract was signed.
It is unclear how the investigation is unfolding. At least one other person has been subpoenaed to testify. Another, Barry Keene, the former director of general services who was one of four state officials forced to resign, said he expects to be called.
Florez said the attorney general ``must have some sort of lead in terms of misconduct on behalf of the people involved in this deal.''
The governor's press officer, Steve Maviglio, said Tuesday it would be ``inappropriate to comment on what the grand jury is looking for or has found.''
Florez wants prosecutors to determine whether a calendar submitted by the governor's policy director to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee was altered to remove any mention of Oracle Chairman and chief executive Larry Ellison.
During the legislative hearings in May, policy director Kari Dohn testified that Oracle representatives told her a week before the contract was signed in May 2001 that Ellison might call Davis.
Oracle representative Jim Finn said Monday, ``Larry Ellison has never met with the governor, Kari Dohn or any of the governor's officials on political fundraising or the state contract.''
Dohn did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. But the governor's deputy secretary of legal affairs said last spring that there was ``no record that the two ever talked.''
Criminal grand jury proceedings are private. The attorney general can use the panel to further an investigation by calling witnesses.
Florez, the former chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, led the two-month investigation.
When Florez turned over thousands of pages of documents to the attorney general's office last summer, he thought the investigation would end there.
``I was surprised that it even surfaced,'' he said. ``But today I am just puzzled.''