By Pamela Brice
For the Herald
Shoreline Community College has severed ties with the dotcom firm e-Werkz in a contract renegotiation that followed two years of controversy.
The firm designed the college’s online bookstore and registration system. In December 1999, the college signed a 30-year contract, and in February 2000 paid $350,000 toward the development of the software.
The contract enabled SCC to earn royalties from the sale of the software.
Bellevue Community College and the Community Colleges of Spokane signed similar contracts, and the firm received a total of $1.4 million.
Former SCC president Gary Oertli was key in negotiating the contracts, but three months later resigned to go to work for e-Werkz. His resignation spurred a controversy as faculty and students began to question the deal.
In the meantime, several setbacks and state scrutiny over the ethics of the project delayed its debut until this fall, a year late.
The first setback occurred when SCC discovered it had to upgrade the college’s hardware to fit the new software, spending an additional $129,000 on programmers.
In a whistle-blower report released in May 2001, the state Auditor’s Office determined SCC violated state law when it entered into a contract larger than $100,000 and did not seek prior approval from the state’s Department of Information Services for the technology.
College officials protested the auditor’s findings, arguing they were approved by the state Attorney General’s Office.
In June 2001 the state’s Executive Ethics Board began investigating the dealings of Oertli with e-Werkz. The ethics board is also investigating a complaint alleging that Oertli used his position to create a business need and received gifts before, during and after contract negotiations.
Oertli no longer works for e-Werkz.
All three schools recently reached a negotiated settlement with the firm. The settlement gives the colleges the full rights of the program for the online registration, purchasing and book delivery system e-Werkz designed. The 30-year royalties agreement was eliminated.
"Basically, we have completed all the necessary work with e-Werkz and found we could do the work on our own," current SCC president Holly Moore said.
Pamela Brice is the education writer for the Enterprise weekly newspapers. You can e-mail her at brice@heraldnet.com or call her at 425-673-6522.
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