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Opinion: Time To Put Bad State Employees, Politicians In Jail

By Alvin Gibson, The Raleigh Telegram

Monday, August 2, 2010

RALEIGH - If a regular citizen goes out and steals a $200 City of Raleigh garbage can from the city streets and you get caught, then chances are that you will be charged with a crime, possibly go to jail, and will subsequently have a hard time getting a job with a criminal record.

However, if you are a state employee caught violating state policy or even the law by stealing from taxpayers, then chances are you won’t be punished, you’ll still retain your job and your pension, and even if you are fired, in some cases, you will happily be re-hired by another state agency at a higher salary.

I was going to list all of the recent scandals that have rocked North Carolina state government, but it actually took up so much room that I quite frankly just didn’t have the time to write them all here.

Three recent examples, however stand out in my mind.

An ABC liquor store district head in Greensboro has been accused of stealing liquor and accepting gifts and other benefits from liquor sellers (I think theft and bribery is still against the law last time I checked) but was just voted to lead the ABC board association.

The association evidently voted her as leader of their group as a reward for being under investigation and for setting a fine example of how to allegedly work the system to her advantage. She is still due her day in court or in a hearing, but if the allegations prove to be true, they will be yet another negative mark against ABC executives in North Carolina without any fixes in sight.

In another example of government worker largesse, the case involving dozens of NC DMV workers who received bribes (including tickets to hockey games, etc.) from Verizon, which has a multimillion dollar contract with the DMV for computer systems, proved to be poorly handled.

After four years of this behavior, Verizon fired some of its employees in the scandal but out of the 60+ workers at the DMV, not a single one was fired, much less charged with the crime of accepting gifts from a vendor. Those that have retired since the news of these problems still receive their full pension.

I could go on and talk about the nepotism in the NC Ferry Division and the firing of a whistleblower, state senators investing in companies with contracts with the state, state troopers who are still receiving their pensions after engaging in nefarious behavior while on the job, etc. but that would take too much time.

To get down to brass tacks, there is at least the perception to the public that there is no absolutely no incentive for any state worker to NOT engage in this type of behavior.

We need a state law that will absolutely strip state workers of their jobs, their pensions, and put them in jail if they are found to be conducting illegal activities or fraud or to be obtaining property under nefarious pretenses (i.e., accepting gifts from vendors illegally).

Since when did the phrase “public servant” mean that you can pretty much do whatever you want on the job and expect to be paid for it?

On top of that, these bad apples are giving the other government workers who actually do good work a bad name, creating distrust between public workers and the public they serve.

We need to instill confidence in our government officials and if the crooks are not being punished, then the public perceives something stinks here.

Is there anyone out there (who doesn’t work for state government) who doesn’t feel that things have just gone too far?

We need some leadership at the top level of state government to pass some bills with some teeth that address this issue, instead of sweeping these continued allegations under the rug by making promises of “zero tolerance” and then going back to business as usual.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alvin Gibson is a guest opinion columnist for the Telegram and the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper or its management.

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