Officials of local governments as well as school and community college districts have a  duty to act in the best interests of their constituents.  Too many officials are either unintentionally unaware or intentionally disregarding that duty and the penalties that can be imposed if they fail to diligently and honestly perform them.    When those officials fail to diligently and impartially perform their oversight duties, dishonest insiders (usually trusted and long-time employees) exploit those failures for personal gain.

We have seen that in Kootenai County with the convictions of former Kootenai County Chief Deputy Clerk and Auditing Supervisor Sandra Martinson and former Coeur d’Alene City Finance Department Payroll Coordinator Sheryl Carroll.  Recently former Athol City Clerk Sally Hansen has been charged in federal court with wire fraud and stealing approximately $400,000 from the city during her five years of employment.

But Idaho isn’t the only place where lax oversight by supervisors can lead to embezzlement and grand theft.  In Pasadena, California,  the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Pastor Danny Wooten has been accused of embezzling over $5 million during the ten years he was working as a management analyst for the city of Pasadena.  The January 15, 2015, Times article is headlined Pasadena embarrassed by charges that employee embezzled $5 million.

If you carefully read the Times article, you are going to see some of the same things we heard in the Martinson and Carroll cases.

• An investigative audit  “… revealed poor oversight and multiple accounting lapses.”  “The audit found that the city [Pasadena] gave too much responsibility to someone viewed as a trusted employee.”
• Pasadena officials were accused by former employees of “… a culture of complacency.”
• Officials who prefer expedience to inconvenient diligence, “… has led to a feeling that it isn’t important to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.”  “Without proper supervision, the problems went unnoticed.”
• A “special fund” apparently not subject to regular audits and kept by one person was exploited using forged signatures and fake documents.
• City officials still don’t know where all the money went.  They can’t find it.
• In Pasadena, contracts for city work were “steered” to associates of the accused.
• Pasadena’s accounting system had received multiple professional accolades over the years including several from the Government Finance Officer’s Assn.
• “People don’t expect corruption and malpractice here.”   “[Wooten] was seen as a good, churchgoing, married man who was a responsible city employee.  Everyone liked him.”

There’s nothing particularly unique about the Pasadena case.   When officials of local governments as well as school and community college districts don’t perform their statutorily-required duties, ultimately the public pays out of their pocketbooks.  Pasadena is fortunate to be in Los Angeles County, California, where the Los Angeles County District Attorney has a Public Integrity Division that aggressively investigates public corruption.  As the LADA’s PID webpage observes:

The citizens of Los Angeles County have the right to expect that their elected and appointed officials will carry out their duties in a lawful, ethical and professional manner. They also have the right to expect that administrators, supervisors and the immediate subordinates of elected and appointed officials, who play an integral role in achieving the mission of the officeholder, will discharge their duties and obligations in the same lawful, ethical and professional manner.

The State of California and the Los Angeles County District Attorney believe that their citizens are entitled to be protected from corrupt public officials by the laws of the state.

In apparent contrast, here we have Idaho.