Damn the Torpedoes ...

Much of what lead to the recent resignation of City Attorney Bryan Wenter has been disclosed in the Contra Costa Times.  Council member Bob Simmons and Mayor Cindy Silva have admitted that they met with Attorney Wenter and told him they wanted "closure" of his investigation ... like maybe it should be ended by a specific date.  That would seem to indicate that an end was desired, whether the facts were in or not.  "Closure" or "Derail the Investigation" - I guess it's just a matter of semantics.

Bob Simmons admitted that Attorney Wenter's upcoming performance review was mentioned at the meeting.  He contends that it was not related to the ongoing investigation, but how could it not be taken that way?

Council member Loella Haskew admitted to placing a "watch your back" phone call to Attorney Wenter. 

Mrs. Haskew claims to be "guileless", and maybe her motives in making the call were innocent. But "guileless" is not a description I've ever heard applied to  Mayor Cindy Silva.

In fact, if you put it all together - the meeting with Attorney Wenter, the watch-your-back phone call, the five former Mayors calling for a cover up - it's hard to believe that it wasn't all orchestrated behind the scenes - and that, in my opinion, is pretty much Mayor Silva's modus operandi.

I still can't figure out Bob Simmon's role in this mess.  As an attorney himself, I'd think he would be more professional/ethical than to offer "suggestions" to Attorney Wenter while also mentioning Wenter's upcoming performance review.  Has he totally morphed into Cindy Silva's toady???

I just re-read the report from the independent investigation of the Lesher incident and noted that the investigation was limited to City EMPLOYEES.  One question that doesn't seem to have been asked at all is:  When did Mayor Silva know about the child abuse allegations and did she play a role in orchestrating a cover up?  I hear that Mayor Silva is pretty hands-on.  Did City Manager Nordhoff confide in her before informing the other Council members?  Now that we have "closure" on the investigation, we may never know.