NCCo County Executive Paul Clark wants us to believe that cutting back on the County’s Ethics Commission budget is somehow good fiscal responsibility. When in fact — and certainly given his own “ethics” history — it is utterly irresponsible to cut back the ability of this Commission to watch over the doings and interactions of individuals in County government.
Starting with Clark himself and his bias towards the development community, the way he has organized his Administration ( the Acting CAO is also the County Attorney?) and the potential conflicts of interest Kovach has down the line, it seems to me that the last thing you want to undermine is the ability of an Ethics Commission to watch over this hornets’ nest of self-interest. And this Commission doesn’t cost all that much. Don’t know if that means that perhaps they aren’t as proactive as they could be, but the price of this oversight is awfully small.
But we all know how Clark feels about oversight and transparency. Time for him to stop playing hide-and-seek games with NCCo taxpayers — because the fiscally responsible way to approach government to stop with the self-serving manipulations.