State Sen. Dean Florez on Monday acknowledged making a confrontational call to Cal State Bakersfield administrator Thomas Martinez earlier this month, but the two men's versions of the conversation differ sharply.

Florez insisted he did not threaten to ruin Martinez's career or to cut funding for the university system because Martinez had criticized him. He charged that Martinez's statements were timed to help Kern County Supervisor Pete Parra in his re-election campaign against Florez-backed Michael Rubio.

Last Thursday, Martinez called a press conference to announce that he had filed official complaints charging Florez had verbally threatened to investigate him and his political activities.

Florez initially declined to discuss the incident and issued a blunt statement saying the allegations were "baseless."

On Monday, however, in a telephone interview, Florez acknowledged calling Martinez on Feb. 12.

"I'm a pretty upfront guy," Florez said, "so when I hear that someone is going beyond the normal call of duty and badmouthing me and my family, I normally extend them the courtesy of telling me to my face."

He said he was angry because he had heard Martinez had not only criticized his performance, but had made "derogatory" comments about his mother, Fran Florez.

Asked for specifics about the criticism of his mother, Florez said, "It was too derogatory for me to repeat."

Commenting on Florez's statements, Martinez said he has made no secret of his poor opinion of Florez's performance in office, but he said he has never said anything bad about his mother.

"I get along just fine with his mother," Martinez said.

"I thought he would come back at me and say something like that," Martinez added. "I figured he would say I said something about his wife."

Florez denied threatening to investigate Martinez and ruin his career.

"But I told him I do have a problem when you are around large groups of people, on state time, representing CSU, and you are badmouthing me in a way that goes way beyond what I would call public policy," Florez said.

Martinez said he has no qualms about telling people he thinks Florez abuses his authority by frequently calling for state audits and other investigations of public agencies. He said he tells people he thinks Florez uses the investigations for political purposes, to build a political empire at the expense of Parra.

"I have a right to do that," Martinez said. "This is America."

Florez said there's a difference between that and blatant campaigning against him and for Parra while representing the university.

"Yes, he has absolute academic freedom," Florez said, "but nobody says state employees can politick on the state's dime."