Public corruption investigations and prosecutions are interesting. They often reveal that the corrupt public officials were able to steal from their friends and neighbors so easily because those same friends and neighbors thought the crooks were pillars of the community and above reproach.
Here is the Internal Revenue Service’s summary of the case against Prince George’s County, Maryland, developer Karl Granzow, Jr. Reading the summary is about as interesting as watching cement dry. Just another crooked Maryland developer, right?
Not quite. Here’s a little more about Karl Granzow, Jr.
What? A dishonest fire department deputy chief? Say it ain’t so, Joe! Firefighters go running into burning buildings to save old folks, kids, and cats. Everyone knows they don’t steal. Yeah. Right.
A careful reading of the linked story about Granzow reveals he:
“… admitted in his guilty plea to partnering with county developers for more than 10 years to bribe public officials for development favors related to the Greenbelt Station development project.”
And with whom was former Deputy Fire Chief Granzow so well connected? None other than former PG County Executive Jack Johnson.
One might wonder how a deputy fire chief in a major* fire department could be so corrupt for so long. Wasn’t anyone watching? Didn’t anyone pick up on his extracurricular activities?
( * PG County Fire/EMS has over 720 uniformed career personnel, staffing a total of 44 community based fire and rescue stations, 2 administrative facilities, 2 support facilities and a Fire/EMS training academy, nearly 80 non-uniformed employees who perform fire inspections, maintain our fleet, present educational programs to their community and provide administrative support to all of our functional areas, as well as nearly 1,100 active volunteers.)
Part of the reason public corruption is intentionally ignored by some local prosecutors is that the nature of the crime almost always involves socially, politically, and economically influential people in the community. Some prosecutors and judges are quite willing to turn a blind eye to the public corruption in their communities because, well, many of the crooks are also perceived to be doing good things for the community. Prosecutors and judges depend on their communities for election and re-election, so why would we be surprised that the prosecutors’ and judges’ attitudes toward public corruption reflect the values and standards (or lack of them) in the people who vote them into office?
One of the best explanations of official and community tolerance of corruption came out of the National Geographic series about The Las Vegas Mafia. Note that until the dead bodies began to stack up and the word began to get out, Las Vegas was more than happy to rely on the likes of Murder, Inc. mobsters Meyer Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel to keep crime down! It was a little like hoping no one would notice the smallpox epidemic if everyone had the flu.
The corruption of public officials is the smallpox no one in a community really wants to acknowledge — until the bodies start piling up.
Why should we care as long as yours or mine isn’t one of the bodies in the pile? Because public corruption drives your taxes and my taxes up. If you look at the FY 2012 summary of a representative sample of just the largest IRS investigations, you will see that in every case the corrupt public officials were not paying their federal income taxes on their ill-gotten gains. Well, if they weren’t paying their federal taxes, do you really think they were paying their state income taxes either? So who pays their corruptly evaded share? The honest citizens who do their best to voluntarily comply with the various tax laws. Those like former Deputy PG County Fire Chief Karl Gramzow who don’t certainly deserve to go down in flames.
It is unfortunate, yet perhaps beneficial that our little “Idaho lag time” should teach us a lesson or two. From music–to style, vogue political ideals, to social unrest, they all seem to start “back east” as my dad calls it. Ranging from mainstreamed “Liberalism,” to a Tea Party (or two), to that darned “integration” all the way to too tight jeans and rock-n-roll–so many things seem to start back “there.”
These “things” then run their course either up or down the Atlantic states, depending upon the media winds, until it jumps across middle Americans to California via Vegas. The mentality from CA to Boise (sometimes retuned via Seattle and/or Portland) is just a relative blip to any good go-getter, but for some reason we here in North Idaho and Eastern WA still cling to the belief that our cops are beyond reproach–our Mayors, County Commissioners, City Council members, and other public officials are in it for the good of all over the longest amount of time.
BUT:
We have mayor(s) who are directly related (by blood and/or marriage) to some of the biggest real estate brokers, dealers, and land owners in the region.
We have entire Planning Commissions’ who are either real estate brokers, realtors, developers, landscapers (or married to someone who is directly reliant upon the land “development” industry).
We have $125K a year City Staffer(s) who really need (and got) a $57K publicity consultant who works 15 hrs. a week to whip their mistakes into cake.
We have $75K a year County Commissioners working diligently to “streamline” government–yet, good luck finding out who all their contributors are. Who are these “Concerned Businesses of North Idaho?” What pre-election promises were made, and to whom?
We have three critical State propositions on the ballot–yet, good luck finding out before the election who kicked-in $200K to want the props to win over the mass.
We have an ex-state multi-term senator who can’t quite figure out if he should file for bankrupsy before foreclosure (again), or whether he should await his job opening at the County (happens all the time and considering his political squeeze, bet they find a basement for him to collect a tidy pension).
I bet we even have amongst us a high ranking county law officer who doesn’t have half of the required permits for a house that was essentially given to him by another political mover and shaker. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the County had to enforce a simple land-use violation against the one at top of the legal heap?
Back to Bill’s story–and what I gleaned. In all of our trusting hiccupped ways, just because we live in a relatively sparse environment just chuck-full of seemingly honest folk, we are not immune from public corruption, despite the fact that we usually only hear about indiscretions from afar; Spokane, Boise, East Coast, California, etc. The mindset seems to be that when a community is “small” no one wants to admit that the thieves did it right in front of our eyes, and—to boot—they live right across the street so wouldn’t want to burn that invite to Bob’s annual BBQ.
Easily defensible legal cases regarding public corruption and/or outright theft seem to be buried and forgotten, logical public distrust gets spun by newly hired consultants, or “streamlined” by covert business interest and then supported through omission of facts at all levels of public discourse. A person can’t even critique City Staff without certain Mayors cutting-off polite citizens in mid-sentence.
Alot of news stories regarding public corruption, conflict of interest, and displays of distrust in government are more often reported to have come from somewhere else–but those same stories are already here, just waiting to be told to another little burb who will no doubt think, oh no, it can’t happen to them.
Comment by old dog — October 28, 2012 @ 2:05 am
old dog,
Thank you for the analysis. Well done. Of course, many of our local officials would deny they’ve succumbed either voluntarily or involuntarily to manipulation and control. They must rationalize their behavior, because they can’t excuse it. On the other hand, they are in absolutely no danger of state prosecution by our County Prosecutor and almost no danger of federal prosecution by the US Attorney for the District of Idaho. To better understand how public officials can be manipulated and controlled, read my August 20, 2011, post titled Of M.I.C.E. and Men. Money – Ideology – Compromise or Coercion – Ego or Extortion.
Comment by Bill — October 28, 2012 @ 7:24 am
Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t it our very own Deanna Goodlander that said a while back certain people should be allowed certain liberties because of their years of service?
Comment by concerned citizen — October 28, 2012 @ 8:16 am
concerned citizen,
I don’t recall that specifically. Was it at a Council meeting? LCDC meeting?
Comment by Bill — October 28, 2012 @ 8:27 am
You might also note that in the embezzlement case re: Sheryl Carroll – that the prosecutor and the defender know each other – have worked with each other before – and are right out of this area. A little too close for my taste. We can’t even get a mug shot of this woman. I have never seen such a hush hush case while they plea bargain away. The last case Amendola and Whelan worked they were high profile with Edgar Steele. It will be interesting to see where this one goes.
Comment by Stebbijo — October 28, 2012 @ 9:07 am
I’m trying to recall but I think it was in regard to the LCDC. I thought Mary did a piece on it. I’ll keep looking.
Comment by concerned citizen — October 28, 2012 @ 9:08 am
Concerned Citizen, was it maybe Dixie? Seems as if she made a somewhat similar remark once.
Comment by reddy — October 28, 2012 @ 12:48 pm
reddy,
I think you are correct. I haven’t found it yet but I remember it was a council member back around ’04, 05,ish.
Comment by concerned citizen — October 28, 2012 @ 2:34 pm
Good Morning CC, I’m trying to remember if a city council person ever said something like that. But what I do remember, and I wrote about it, was a P&Z Commissioner who told me,in writing, when referring to LCDC et al, that if some of the people who volunteer their time get extra benefits for themselves and their friends, well, what’s the problem?…that’s just the way it goes around here. I’ve still got the document.
Yeah, that one often comes to mind. It’s like the sharp edge of the in-crowd’s self-approved reality sticking in my ethical craw.
Comment by mary — October 29, 2012 @ 10:20 am
Mary, I remember you writing about it and couldn’t remember who said it. Forgive me. I stand corrected. However it was said by someone in position to gain at taxpayers expense.
Comment by concerned citizen — October 30, 2012 @ 6:18 am
Oh, it certainly was, CC. And this person on P&Z was close to folks on LCDC. He knew what was going on and was rationalizing it.
Comment by mary — October 30, 2012 @ 9:25 am