This whole situation with Keith Caldwell and the improper educational bonuses stinks to high heaven, and now the American Canyon City Council has added to the mess by failing to do their Democratic duty to the public and tell us the truth about what went on. It shows real gutlessness on the part of the American Canyon City Council and couldn’t be a more undemocratic decision.

There is clear evidence that Caldwell was at the center of misuse of taxpayer funds, authorizing pay increases for firefighters that were under his supervision based on what amounts to a fake diploma. This is especially troubling because Caldwell is asking to be made a county supervisor, the most powerful elected official in Napa County, with authority over a $250 million annual budget and the power to decide what to grant employee unions in negotiations. This really raises huge concerns about his judgment and whether he can be trusted with the public purse.

Now, after weeks of stonewalling, denials, claims of innocence, including writing a letter to the editor himself and claiming he was cleared of any wrongdoing — which is not possible because the second investigation hasn’t even been released — he admits to mistakes in judgment.

The second investigation was triggered because Kurt Henke, president of the Vallejo Firefighters Union, laid the blame for the scandal clearly at Caldwell’s feet. Henke went so far as to say Caldwell was actively promoting this school to the firefighters, that it was Caldwell’s idea, a school that can only honestly be characterized as a diploma mill.

The first investigation revealed that the school in question was not an accredited school and would not meet any normal criteria as a properly accredited institution. In short, you write one essay on life experiences, send it and a check for $499 to the school, and voila, you have a diploma.

In his letter to the Register, Caldwell blamed it on some official in the fire marshal’s office. Although it would be good to know the response of this individual, in my view Caldwell is blaming someone else for what he did, and that is not the kind of responsibility we should expect from a high-level official. Caldwell was the fire chief and training officer, he signed the authorization for the educational pay increase, he is the main person responsible for this.

At this point, with the addition of the Henke letter, it is nearly impossible to believe he did not know this school was improper. He has never stated that he did not know the degree requirements were so skimpy. He danced around this at his recent press conference, a video of which the Register has online.

If you really didn’t know how inadequate this school’s requirements were, wouldn’t you say that? Of course, if he did know it is just as damning because what in the world is he doing authorizing the expenditure of taxpayer dollars for that?

He has tried to blame the state fire marshal, union contracts, he is even criticizing the city of American Canyon for spending money on the investigation. He is blaming everyone, and claiming everyone else does it, too.

Using the “all my friends did it, too” excuse is for adolescents, not for someone who wants to have total authority over county government.

Caldwell has left the voters in a position where we cannot trust him with this kind of authority and control over millions of dollars of taxpayer money. He showed poor judgment in authorizing the payments to begin with and further poor judgment in the way he has chosen to handle it. He has been in total denial that he has done anything wrong and his recent press conference did nothing to change that. He has also tried to pass this off as a campaign tactic by the Simpson campaign. I am not campaigning for Simpson, and in fact have an issue with former heads of safety becoming supervisors which I have publicly stated in the past.

Sorry, Keith, this is about your behavior, nothing else.

Based on what we know right now, voters need to say no to Caldwell.

(Haley is president of Napa Valley Taxpayers Alliance.)