Letter from Hercules resident Bill Kelly to City Attorney Patrick Tang

							                                                     WILLIAM J. KELLY
                                                             ATTORNEY AT LAW                                                  billk@wjklaw.net
                                                        1511M SYCAMORE AVENUE                                                  www.wjklaw.net
TELEPHONE (510) 741-8334
FACSIMILE (510) 964-7032                                        PMB 188
                                                         HERCULES, CA 94547-1767


                                                          September 25, 2012

     City of Hercules
     ATTENTION: John Patrick Tang, Esq.,
     City Attorney
     111 Civic Drive
     Hercules, CA 94547

                                     Violation of citizen’s First Amendment Rights

     Dear Mr. City Attorney,

     The Contra Costa Times reported on Sunday, September 23, 2012 that Councilmember
     Myrna deVera had complained to an official of the City of Pinole that a citizen of
     Hercules who worked for HDR Engineering was making comments on the Patch which
     she was offended by. The article further indicated that the Pinole official moved this
     complaint forward to a Vice-president of HDR and that this vice president caused the
     Hercules resident/employee to be the subject of a discussion relating to these postings.
     The end result is that the Hercules resident/employee was convinced to stop posting on
     the Patch.

     Mrs. deVera has apologized for her lapse in judgment but unfortunately her apology letter
     raised more questions than it answers.

     She tells the citizens, in relevant part, that, “Even though I did not tell the Pinole
     official to silence the citizen, and the Pinole city official did not direct HDR to do the
     same, and there is no evidence HDR forced Mr. Von Aspern to stop blogging,…” The e-
     mails obtained and published by the Times, at the very least, leave the accuracy of that
     claim in doubt.

     On July 3, 2012 the Pinole official wrote Mrs. deVera and said, “"I spoke with the VP for
     HDR about Kent's postings on the Patch. I was told that discussions were made and we
     should not be seeing any future postings.".

     Then on July 17th Mrs. deVera sent that same official an e-mail complaining that the
     Hercules citizen/HDR employee was posting again and making comments that Mrs.


The information may be privileged attorney/client communication, which is protected by law as confidential and not subject to disclosure to third parties.
Should someone who is not party to the attorney/client relationship somehow come into possession of these documents that person must immediately take
         steps to return the documents to the Law Office of William J. Kelly; 1511 M Sycamore Avenue, PMB 188; Hercules, CA 94547-1767.
John Patrick Tang, Esq.
September 25, 2012
Page 2 of 2

deVera found objectionable.

Mrs. deVera asks us to believe that there was no coercion of the Hercules
resident/employee while the tenor of these two e-mails makes it hard to believe her claim.

The rule of law relating to the standard by which the conduct of public officials, both
elected and appointed, is to be judged was set out by the courts longs ago. That standard
is that even the mere appearance of impropriety must be avoided.

The unanswered questions raised by these events unquestionably create an appearance of
impropriety. That fact, in and of itself, requires that there be an independent
investigation with all the facts being reported openly to the public.

I ask the City Council by this letter to request that the California Attorney general
investigate this incident.


                                                Respectfully submitted,




                                 ___________________________________
                                       WILLIAM J. KELLY, Esq.




cc:      Mayor Dan Romero
         Vice Mayor John Delgado
         Council Member Gerard Boulanger
         Council Member Myrna deVera
         Council Member William Wilkins




    The information may be privileged attorney/client communication, which is protected by law as confidential and not subject to
disclosure to third parties. Should someone who is not party to the attorney/client relationship somehow come into possession of these
documents that person must immediately take steps to return the documents to the Law Office of William J. Kelly; 1511 M Sycamore
                                            Avenue, PMB 188; Hercules, CA 94547-1767.