The head of the Napa Valley Housing Authority publicly apologized Wednesday for dipping into a city fund to pay for over-budget expenses on the NVHA-led renovation of two Upvalley farmworker camps.

Peter Dreier, the executive director of both the NVHA and the housing authority of the city of Napa, who single-handedly transferred funds from the HACN’s reserve account to the NVHA, opened Wednesday’s meeting of the NVHA board of directors with a two-minute “mea culpa.”

“The oath of office that we all took did not say that we would not make mistakes, because we all have and will continue to in the future. It is the nature of being human,” a somber Dreier told the board. “I would like to publicly apologize to my two boards of directors again. My actions have caused public embarrassment for them and have diverted time and resources from other major issues to respond to this problem that I have played a major role in creating ...

“Finally, I want to apologize to the general public. My personal actions have caused a loss of confidence in local government. You have my pledge I will work to gain back that confidence,” he said. “I have given serious thought to voluntarily retiring ... I have rejected that option. It would be too easy for me to go off into retirement and would leave the problem for someone else to resolve.”

He closed his comments by saying: “I realize there are consequences for my actions and I will leave that decision to the HACN board and the city manager and accept their determination.”

The renovation of the Mondavi and Calistoga camps, originally budgeted at about $2.6 million, ended up running closer to $4.2 million to pay for dozens of unanticipated repairs and upgrades.

The NVHA board dedicated the rest of the meeting to tackling the financial tangle they feel pressured to resolve long before June, when county grape growers will vote whether to continue taxing themselves to fund farmworker housing.

In addition to hiring an Oakland-based auditor at a cost of up to $38,000 to independently audit the Mondavi and Calistoga projects, the board also wrestled with how to pay the last, $220,000 bill from the Mondavi remodel.

After much debate, they decided to use farmworker camp operation funds left over from last year to pay off the $220,151 still owed to a construction company. Come Christmas, that bill will begin accumulating interest compounded at 2 percent a month.

“I’d like to get this paid, and the best information we have is to pay for it using last year’s operation funds that weren’t used because of the remodeling,” said Napa County Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht, who chairs the board.

Margaret Woodbury, the county attorney representing the NVHA, warned that the movement of money from the city housing authority to pay off a debt incurred by the NVHA could be interpreted as the city “conceding appropriateness of the change order.”

She advised that she and the city attorney draw up an agreement so that the transfer of funds “is not viewed as a waiving of claims for either side.”

At that point Napa’s finance director Jed Christensen expressed frustration.

“Is (Woodbury) covering the county or the board?” he asked. “While everyone’s busy coming up with agreements of who’s going to sue who, we’re saying we need to make this payment.”

Christensen also enlightened the board as to how city housing authority funds could be transferred over to the NVHA unbeknownst to city staff. The computer system that stores most of the city’s financial information does not include the city housing authority’s finances, he said. The city housing authority draws up its own budget separate from the city and submits to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Christensen said the city’s financial records are in “a very archaic computer system” that will soon be replaced by newer technology.

“They weren’t in the system. If I’m making excuses, that’s one,” Christensen said.