How would you like to have a personal mechanic who would come to your workplace to work on your vehicle anytime you wanted? Better yet, how would you like it if the taxpayers in your county picked up the tab? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, doesn’t it?
The above scenario has allegedly been taking place in South Carolina at the offices of the Parker Sewer and Fire District in Greenville County, South Carolina. What makes the story even more “interesting” is that the people having work done on their cars weren’t workers sneaking behind their boss’ backs, but the bosses themselves; four of the five elected commissioners!
In an online article (December 9, 2013) by Parul Joshi for television station WYFF, entitled: “SC Ethics Commission investigates Upstate elected officials,” we learn that the commissioners were accused of using their positions for their own personal benefit by letting workers repair their vehicles at the district facilities.
As their defense, the commissioners pointed to the Employee Conduct and Responsibility policy:
“Section 21.15, titled Personal Use of District Property states in part, ‘District equipment and tools, (but not materials) may be used by District personnel or commissioners either at District facilities, or at their home.’”
However, that is not what happened and it bears examination.
May I Borrow Your Tools – and Your People?
The commissioners said they did not know they were breaking any policies. I will allow, for a minute, that they believed if the policy allowed them to borrow “tools,” that in their minds, the tools extended to experienced people who knew how to use the tools for them. It is a preposterous thought, but we can bring it into the conversation.
From an ethical point of view, I might ask the commissioners and/or those who wrote the policy handbook, if they personally purchased the tools or if it was the county purchasing the tools from taxpayer dollars? If it was, as I suspect, the latter, I might ask to see some kind of public sign-out log where everyone in the county was given access to the same tools any time they needed to do their own repairs. Of course, no such public log exists. I am just being an ethical gadfly!
I might stretch the point just a bit more and ask: “At any time, was a tool damaged while working on a commissioner’s vehicle?” Who was put in charge of asking the commissioners to pay for a damaged replacement tool? I am certain the answer is pretty clear to all of us.
One of the commissioners claimed that he “compensated the employees who worked on his cars and did not use district money.” Therefore, I kind of have to think the commissioner knew there were ethical problems before any of this was uncovered.
But just how did he compensate the mechanics? At what standard rate were the employees paid – and where did that money go? I am assuming that the employees were working on taxpayer time. Was the money returned to the county? A last point to this particular issue; note the commissioner said “cars,” as in more than one. So if four commissioners, just how many vehicles might that have been? How about cars of relatives or friends of the commissioners?
A Deeper Ethical Issue
The commissioners had the opportunity to take advantage of a situation; they gained free tools and free labor at taxpayer expense. What of the workers themselves?
Times are not easy despite Congress telling us how the economy is just rocking along. If I am a mechanic struggling to feed my family and a commissioner asks me to help him (they were all men) out, am I really going to say “no?” Really? I would hold my tongue and go along with the program out of fear.
This is a not so subtle form of harassment.
On the surface, the Parker Sewer and Fire District in Greenville County, South Carolina may not be much of a big deal to U.S. politics, but it is emblematic of the very bad ethics that exist on many levels of government life these days because no ethical training is in place. It is a case of entitlement, pure and simple; it is them and us.
The story does end on a positive and optimistic note. Four out of FIVE commissioners were caught. One commissioner seems to have played it straight. One commissioner seems to have understood right from wrong. He is my hope for the future.
YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
I can tell you what happened to the mechanics that worked on the commissioner’s cars. Just like everyone else that works there they were afraid of losing their jobs if they didn’t do what they told them to. Any employee that doesn’t bow down to them they cut their pay, their benefits, and in a lot of causes they lose their jobs. They have a select few employees that are their little puppets. When the Ethics Board came in to do their investigation they just assumed that the person who worked on their cars was the one who ratted them out but they were wrong. They made his life a living hell and he was only doing what he had to do. He couldn’t lie for them he wasn’t going to jail for them. So they railroaded him everyway they could just assuming he was the one who ratted on them. Him and the other mechanic had to find other jobs because they couldn’t handle their harrasament any longer. Those charges were just a slap on the hand. The taxpayers need to know about their other under handed actions. They need to be asking why the commissioner’s had to pay over $300,000 of the taxpayers money out to the firemen in a law suit. One of the commissioner’s that is running for re-election used a term that he had saved the taxpayers money but fell to mention how much the millage has been raised since he has been in office.