State agriculture secretary A.G. Kawamura denied Monday that a public relations contract to promote the safety of aerial spraying for the light brown apple moth was canceled because news stories reported the contract was awarded without seeking competing bids.

"We have mutually parted ways," Kawamura said Monday. "We were able to get some good advice from them. Our messaging is better."

State officials confirmed Monday they had canceled a no-bid contract last week with public relations powerhouse Porter Novelli. The cancellation came shortly after The Associated Press reported on the contract.

The contract's existence was first revealed in January by The Herald, after the newspaper filed a public records request and obtained e-mails related to the moth eradication program in Monterey County.

On Monday, Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear confirmed that the contract had been terminated.

The AP reported that for legal reasons, the state could not completely sever ties with Porter Novelli until April 13.

But California Department of Food and Agriculture spokeswoman Nancy Lungren told The Herald that the firm has agreed to waive a clause requiring 30 days' notice for cancellation, and said the termination has been effective since Thursday, the day the AP story ran.

Kawamura said the firm's assistance was sought because misinformation about the spraying campaign is still being published on the Internet.

"Blogs continue to say this is a

product that kills cats," he said, "or some people think there is a secret list of ingredients. We realized that with the press, and with resistance to aerial spraying, we needed some professional help with getting our message out about eradication. We weren't doing a very good job of getting the word out."

Kawamura defended the contract's legality, saying the declared state of emergency that allowed the contract to be awarded without competition is still in effect.

"We're still in an emergency response arena. We're still driven by a sense of urgency," he said. "The nature of eradication is not an easy business. It's time sensitive."

However, e-mails obtained by the AP showed that a senior state official questioned the state's arrangement with the firm, which has ties to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"I can see how spraying would be an emergency. But I am having some difficulty with why CDFA could not get bids or go through (a national competitive bidding) process for the public relations work being undertaken by Porter (Novelli)," Henry D. Nanjo, senior counsel for the Department of General Services, wrote in an internal e-mail.

Classifying it as an emergency allowed the contract to be exempted from normal contracting rules designed to limit favoritism.

The $497,000 contract was awarded in November to Porter Novelli, an international public relations firm with an office in Sacramento, after hundreds of Central Coast residents complained about breathing problems and other health effects they attributed to the spraying.

Before awarding the contract to Porter Novelli, the CDFA also sought proposals from longtime Schwarzenegger advisers Donna Lucas and Jeff Randle.

Lucas is a former chief of staff to first lady Maria Shriver and a member of Schwarzenegger's inner circle during his first years in office. She is also associated with Porter Novelli.

After Porter Novelli secured the state contract, the firm ended up subcontracting some of its work to Randle, a campaign and political adviser to Schwarzenegger. Before joining the current governor's team, Randle was a senior adviser to Gov. Pete Wilson.

Kawamura said his department spent roughly $96,000 with Porter Novelli under the contract before it was terminated.

"They helped us quite a bit. Sometimes we describe things in a way that people don't understand them," he said.

He denied the contract was canceled in response to recent publicity, saying the firm's services were no longer needed.

"The contract was for the potential of any and all services," he said.

Officials said the contract would be paid by the U.S Department of Agriculture.

The USDA was one of Porter Novelli's first clients.

The company invented the USDA's famous food pyramid graphic and later developed a new version of the pyramid plan for nearly $2.5 million, a contract criticized by public interest groups as a conflict of interest because the firm has promoted food industry groups from McDonald's to California almond growers.

The CDFA will continue to use its own public outreach staff to conduct town-hall meetings and other community forums as aerial spraying plans proceed in the Central Coast and San Francisco Bay Area this spring and summer, he said.

Kawamura is scheduled to appear at 10 a.m. today at a public meeting at the Monterey Fairgrounds with local farming leaders, including Grower-Shipper Association president James Bogart and officials from the Monterey County Farm Bureau, to discuss moth eradication plans and strategies.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Julia Reynolds can be reached at 648-1187 or jreynolds@montereyherald.com.