On April 28, 2009, Mayor Vipperman sent an email to City Staff asking not to have public comments if possible during an appeal, and to craft the appeal so as to deny it.

Acting upon a complaint, the District Attorney's Bureau of Fraud and Corruption, sent a warning letter to Mayor Vipperman on May 20, 2009.

The 3 page letter included this comment:
" More troubling is the concept of "crafting" an agenda item for the purpose of obviating public comment."

The DA letter was the subject of a June 2, 2009 Whittier Daily News front page story.

At the June 11, 2009 City Council Meeting, Agenda Item #30 asked for approval of a City Attorney written letter to the District Attorney responding to the DA letter.

The City Attorney letter, starts with the pretense that the Vipperman email was a "privileged" communication, and no one should have seen it.
The printed email had been placed in a publicly accessible file by City staff.

Mayor Vipperman's request to deny public comment is dismissed as just a desire for meeting efficiency.

His directive to staff to craft the appeal so as to deny it, is only questioning how to handle reconsideration of an item according to the City Attorney letter.

Somewhat troubling was that Mayor Vipperman not only did not recuse himself, but stated he was happy with the letter, and joined the others in wanting it to be sent.

Oddly, the City Council agreed to send the response letter to the DA, without having been provided a copy of the District Attorney's letter to Howard Vipperman.

Councilmembers Bergman and Carroll expressed concerns about inviting further action by the DA by sending the strongly worded response.

Follow-up: June 15, 2009

In a Whittier Daily News article, the District Attorney's office "rejected the idea that the e-mail was privileged because it's attorney-client privileged, saying there was nothing in it that suggested that."