Thumbs down: Once again, what were they thinking?

Two months ago, we published a thumbs down with the headline “What were they thinking at Villa Capri?” That concerned how the operators of Oakmont Senior Living, eight days after the fires of Oct. 9, somehow managed to get an excavator and dump trucks to clear out the remains of the fire-ravaged Villa Capri retirement facility - while the entire Fountaingrove area was still locked down with roadblocks. This was before the ashes had been searched for bodies and toxic materials and before family members had been able to sift through the ashes for personal possessions.

Now we ask the same question about an article by Staff Writer Paul Payne, who reported that Oakmont Senior Living, which oversees several senior living complexes, none of which are actually located in Oakmont, is accused of offering to pay employees of the Villa Capri complex between $750 and $1,500 to say they were unaware that the company had broken any laws. Details of the alleged offer were revealed in connection with a lawsuit filed by the families of eight Villa Capri residents who claim that roughly a third of the nearly 70 residents were abandoned by staff as the Tubbs fire approached.

In exchange for the payment, court papers say, Villa Capri employees were asked to sign a letter stating they didn’t know of any violation of local, state or federal law at the complex. The question is, were all the employees educated about what the laws are before they were asked to sign? We’re guessing that it’s not likely.