Editor:

The Press Feb. 13 article “CSD director admits ‘I screwed up’” gives us all a vivid picture of the contrasts between some current board members.

On the one hand we have Treasurer Dove, who is so concerned about doing the right thing that he will apologize even when it is not at all clear that he did anything wrong.

In addition, Mr. Dove is committed to keeping the citizens of Discovery Bay fully informed about what our governing body is, or is not, doing. He was helping Mark Doran (no relation to Robert Doran) get to the bottom of what has proven to be a serious bureaucratic mess that the status of Discovery Bay’s MAC is in, even after 10 years that the town’s leaders have known of the mess but did nothing about it.

On the other hand we have Director David Piepho, who has been on the board since the CSD was formed, and is one of those responsible for the mess.

Some very significant facts have not been publicized, for some reason. They are as follows:

On Sept. 18, 2008, a meeting prompted by Mr. Doran’s pursuit of the MAC mess was attended by Supervisor Mary Piepho, Director David Piepho (by telephone), GM Virgil Koehne, Neumiller & Beardslee’s attorney and general counsel for CSD, John Stovall, and others.

Discovery Bay resident Don Flint is also concerned about how the CSD conducts our business. He took issue with the legality of that meeting. After an exchange that included Mr. Stovall’s denials that it was a “meeting” (and contrary to his invoices, which described his services in preparation for and attendance at a “meeting”), Mr. Stovall finally admitted that what occurred on Sept. 18, 2008 was a “meeting” and it, in fact, violated the Brown Act, just as Mr. Flint said that it did.

At the Jan. 21, 2009 and Feb. 4, 2009 CSD Board meetings, Mr. Stovall was compelled to apologize to the town because, in his own words, “… he believed that a committee of the board had held a meeting (the Sept. 18, 2008 meeting) that was in violation of the Brown Act.”

The Sept. 18, 2008 meeting was attended by Supervisor Mary Piepho, Director David Piepho, GM Koehne and (legal) advisor to the CSD, General Counsel John Stovall. All of these people should have known better because of their experience in such matters.

Mr. Stovall apologized with his own version of the “I screwed up” mea culpa.

Has anyone heard of such an apology from either of the two Piephos or from GM Koehne? Were the citizens of Discovery Bay even aware that this secret meeting, in violation of the Brown Act, had occurred? It casts a new light on Mr. Piepho’s constant refrain “we have done nothing wrong.”

William R. Richardson

Discovery Bay