The end of an expensive, divisive lawsuit in Discovery Bay is good news. Brought by resident Bill Richardson, the suit alleged that the CSD board violated a number of laws by not recording meeting minutes properly, not conducting its business in public and acting without properly voting.

The suit, which began two years ago, was set to go to trial this week. Last month Richardson offered to drop the suit in exchange for a promise from the board to obey the law in the future, an offer that the board rejected because the suit intimated that the board had not done so in the past. The case was finally settled last week through a Request for Admissions, wherein the board acknowledged the already-obvious fact that there were laws governing its conduct. No findings were made that the town had broken any laws, which we believe justifies the board's decision to defend itself against the charges.

Richardson said he was willing to settle for the admissions because, although he thinks there is still progress to be made, he believed his suit had brought about a change in the board's behavior: better communication, reporting and more frequent consultations with legal counsel to make sure the law was being followed. 

To whatever extent the suit helped bring about more meticulous behavior in the way the board conducts its business is a good thing. Residents need to feel confident that their representatives are carefully and openly considering their actions in light of the law and the expectations of onlookers.

But we cannot support the manner in which these changes were brought about. The entire episode was rife with personal attacks, name calling and disrupted meetings, and cost nearly $200,000 in legal expenses on both sides. The reputation of the town as a whole suffered, as mean-spirited invective replaced reasonable discussion as a way to get things done.

The case was likely a major reason residents elected a pair of new directors, Mark Simon and Ray Tetreault, who ran together on a slate for change. We believe that a ballot-box solution was the proper way to go about resolving the situation. It should have been accomplished through constructive, reasoned debate, however, rather than by demonizing individuals, dragging the entire town through the fetid wasteland of destructive, negative politics through which it has gone, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for a decision that reiterates the obvious.

We hope that the change initiated this week will not only be a shift in the board majority, but will signal the beginning of a genuine effort to change the way differences are settled in Discovery Bay. The people deserve no less.