Rock Hill

To the editor:

While county legislators take up concerns with the ethics board, will they take up concerns to better police themselves? 

Even when a jury found the former chairman of this legislature liable for defamation, county taxpayers were still required to cough up about a hundred grand to defend him in court.  Those financiers later came to learn that while their money was good to go, the former chairman’s, well, not so much.  His commitment to defend his full-throated denials of any wrongdoing shriveled with the knowledge that appealing the jury decision would require going into his own pocket.  

It’s just one reason accountability needs to extend beyond just the ballot box, and why, while no system of accountability is perfect, findings by a court of legal competence should set a floor, not a ceiling, for acceptable conduct in office.  Abuses in office should have consequences ‘in office’, yet existing Rules of the Legislature and the County Code come up short.   

More clearly defining bounds of acceptable behavior in advance, instead of allowing political alliances in the moment to decide them, would be a step in the right direction.  As one example, any legislator earning a salary premium by virtue of their leadership position and found to have abused their office should be required to step down from leadership – voters determine who’s in office; legislators decide how much to pay themselves.  The demotion and the salary reduction would at least provide some disincentive to unacceptable behavior.