Editor's Note: Kim and I spent all weekend in South Lake Tahoe (beautiful!), as the kids are in Chicago visiting my parents. Just caught this article in The Union which is reprinted in its entirety below.
Nevada County finally settled the AtPac lawsuit. They say it only cost the taxpayer $100,000. ONLY? This suit could have been avoided for $15,000 at the very beginning, and that's when the trouble began.
County Clerk Recorder, Greg Diaz told the Board of Supervisors that the county could handle the change of software vendors without the help of AtPac, the previous vendor. Eventually, AtPac sued Nevada County, Aptitude Solutions and Greg Diaz in Federal Court over copyright infringement that could have been prevented for $15,000.
It became very clear in the depositions that neither the Clerk/Recorder's office nor the county was qualified to do the software change-over.
The details of the case have been well reported in our local media, including the depositions of county employees. During this time, the Federal Judge ruled that “there was a willful destruction of relevant evidence” by county employees, a very serious charge.
Here's where it gets interesting. Greg Diaz was called in to give his deposition to AtPac's attorney. That deposition has never been released publicly because the county has refused to do so. Shortly after Mr. Diaz's deposition, AtPac filed for a summary judgment against the county, Aptitude Solutions and Mr. Diaz. Why? Was Mr. Diaz' deposition so damaging that AtPac felt that a summary judgment was in order? Then the county asked AtPac to enter into mediation. Again I ask, why? The timing of all this is very suspicious.
Recently, the county stated that the lawsuit was resolved to everyone's satisfaction. However, the county insisted that further documents and depositions will not be released and no further comments would be forthcoming. The county is initiating this document embargo, not AtPac. What is the county trying to hide?
Here are a couple more questions: If the county was not at fault, why did the county's insurance pay $1.9 million to AtPac to settle the suit? Also, how much will the county's insurance premium increase due to this large payout?
The county doesn't want you, the taxpayer, to know who was at fault or whether any county employee has been reprimanded or fired for their part in this legal fiasco. That is a cover-up!
You and I deserve better from our employees. How can we trust our elected officials when they refuse to tell us the truth? We have seen these types of cover-ups and lack of transparency up to the highest levels of our government for many years, but I don't think we expected it here in Nevada County.
Make no mistake about it, this is a cover-up!
We must insist that the Board of Supervisors release the Greg Diaz deposition and let the public decide who is at fault. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior on the part of the county.
So, what do we do now? We must all write letters to The Union newspaper and express our opinions. Call KNCO and tell them that you would like to see them investigate this cover-up. You can write to the Sacramento Bee and tell them about another act of corruption in our county.
Call your Supervisor and demand that all documents be released. Remind them that they work for you and you are a voter who cares about your community.
Our Constitution is built on the principle that the people are supreme and that the government does the will of the people, not the other way around. It's time for our county government to get reacquainted with that concept.
Stan Meckler lives in Nevada County.
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