Russ Steele
It appears the the County and Diaz will also be joining Aptitude Solutions in switching legal teams. This arrived from the County Council this afternoon while we were out to dinner.
Media Release May 4, 2011
In the lawsuit filed by AtPac, Inc., Defendants County of Nevada, Clerk-Recorder Gregory Diaz and Aptitude Solutions, Inc. have decided to be represented by the firm of Pillsbury Winthrop. As the case moved closer to a trial date later this year the County felt that a law firm with offices in the Sacramento area would be advantageous. The litigation costs will be split between Aptitude and the County.
This case arose out of the need of the County Recorder to have a computer program that would allow it to efficiently record, index, retrieve and copy official records. These records, are critical to the functioning of our society. In 2009, the County, in a competitive process selected Aptitude Solutions, Inc. The new system has proven to be economical and efficient.
The Recorder’s Office was then faced with the task of how to extract its data from the old program in order to put it into Aptitude’s program. The County requested of AtPac if they would assist in the extraction; their response did not give any assurance that the process could be accomplished in the time that the transition needed to occur. The Clerk-Recorder could not allow the performance of his official duties relative to the County’s Official records to be compromised. Aptitude Solutions, Inc. agreed to assist in the extraction. The lawsuit followed.
There has been considerable and understandable concern about the cost of defending this lawsuit. Neither the County nor Mr. Diaz chose to be sued. AtPac’s attorneys have demanded $1,000,000 to settle this case. The County has not been shown any evidence that AtPac has been harmed financially by the data extraction and we continue to believe that defending against the suit is in our citizens’ best interest.
I am pleased to hear that we will only be paying for one legal team, not two. It will be interesting to hear the other-side of the story. Yes, it is hard to find the evidence when County staff scrubbed the servers that had the evidence. You may recall this scrubbing upset a Federal Judge who said senior county staff should have know better. So, this opens this question was it deliberate, incompetence, or stupidity? Your choice!
Update (05-04-11, 20:00) George Rebane and Rebane's Ruminations posted his transcript of a bi-weekly commentary on KVMR-FM which was recorded on 21 April 2011: The Diaz Case Continues. He added an addendum of information from a subsequent conversation he had with a Nevada County staffer on insurance risk. This transcript generated over a 110 comments from community observers.
Update #2 (05-05-11, 07:00) The Union has a little more on this story, but not much. Details here.
