The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has awarded a nearly $1 billion contract for a sludge processor at its Bayview district sewage treatment plant — but some at City Hall question whether the deal passes the smell test.

At issue: the role played by Emilio Cruz, a longtime friend of commission General Manager Harlan Kelly and a key figure in the city’s early planning for the sewage plant overhaul when he was the agency’s assistant general manager.

A couple of months back, to the surprise of some utilities commission staffers, Cruz resurfaced as a vice president of Carollo Engineers to testify on behalf of MWH Constructors/Webcor Builders — one of two teams bidding for the megabucks Bayview contract. His testimony to a city panel evaluating the bids appears to have been well received, with one member writing “very good” next to Cruz’s name in notes we’ve obtained that were attached to the score sheet.

In the end, MWH/Webcor outscored its competitor, Flatiron/Dragados. That cleared the way for MWH/Webcor to be awarded the $939 million contract this month.

Neither Cruz nor Carollo Engineers were listed as a subcontractor or financial participant in the bid, a check of utilities commission records shows. But in a letter to the city agency dated April 17 — one month after Cruz went to bat for the partnership —MWH/Webcor proposed that Carollo be given a $315,000 city contract to review the sewage plant design and provide “additional pre-construction services.”

The project manager for the utilities commission “basically declined the offer,” saying the extra oversight wasn’t needed, said agency spokeswoman Deborah Chilvers.

Probably a good thing. City rules bar “former city officers and employees ... from switching sides on particular matters in which they participated personally and substantially while with the city,” the San Francisco Ethics Commission says.

As for why Cruz didn’t have to recuse himself from the evaluation process, given his earlier work on the project at the utilities commission? For starters, Chilvers said, he’d been gone longer than the year required under ethics rules. If he’d worked on the bid specifications, he would have been permanently barred from lobbying the commission on the project — but he didn’t, Chilvers said.

Ironically, Cruz resigned from his $253,644-a-year post with the utilities commission in 2015 over a potential conflict — his wife’s work with AECOM, an engineering outfit that was helping manage city sewer projects under Cruz. In that case, Cruz’s conflict appeared to be a matter of happenstance — it was created when the company where his wife worked merged with AECOM.

Not that Cruz’s relationship with the utilities commission ended entirely. Less than three months after leaving the agency, he joined his old boss Kelly as part of a city delegation on a weeklong trip to Ireland, England and Norway to check out the kind of sewage-processing technology that’s now been given the green light in San Francisco. Cruz paid for his tab out of his own pocket, even though at the time he was working for AECOM.

San Francisco Ethics Commission Chair Peter Keane was hesitant to draw any conclusions about possible ethics violations involving Cruz and the Bayview deal. But he did say, “Put it all together and it does raise some questions that I think have to be answered at some point.”

Cruz did not return our calls seeking comment.

Digital dialing: Being an outspoken voice against the Trump administration has turned into a gold mine for Sen. Kamala Harris.

In her first three months on the job, the California Democrat pulled in about $1 million in political contributions, mostly in small increments of $20 or less.

A good deal of the credit goes to a $300,000 digital media ad campaign that her operatives have kept running ever since the November election.

Normally, it would take a Washington newcomer like Harris years to build up the national presence to mount such a operation. But Harris’ election-night declaration that she “will fight for our ideals” hit a chord with Democrats across the country and became one of the first rallying cries of the “resistance” movement.

“People saw it as a sign of hope, and they wanted to do something,” said Harris’ political adviser Sean Clegg.

So in came the flood of small donations, from roughly 48,000 individuals. It’s enabled Harris to start spreading the wealth around to fellow Democratic senators who are up for re-election next year.

“This has nothing to do with her state base — this is about raising her profile for the 2020 or 2024 presidential race,” said Republican Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

“This is about the battle for being one of the ‘mentioned’ as a contender.”

The irony here is that Harris’ rise to national fame probably wouldn’t have happened if Hillary Clinton had been elected.

But in both politics, as in comedy, timing is everything.

S an Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@ sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross