The news of Friday’s indictment of former Owen County Auditor Angie Lawson on federal embezzlement charges related to alleged thefts from county government has several lessons for the public and for government across the state.
The five-count indictment charges that she took at least $310,000 of county money and spent it on personal items over the past five years, charging her purchases on county credit cards.
The people of Owen County, with a relatively small population scattered over a largely rural landscape, were shocked when the news broke several months ago of trouble with the books in county government.
Bottom line for the county appears to be that it may have lost a lot of money — provided, of course, that the case against Lawson is proven in court — money that should have been spent for the taxpayers of Owen County. That’s a hard lesson for a county that could use all the cash it can get.
Who knows what services have been lost for a public whose taxes would have paid for them. That’s money that could pay for filling potholes or buying new police cars or improving emergency medical services or … well, scads of other items or services the county needs.
County officials are seeking repayment through a lawsuit already filed against Lawson and her husband, Larry. The lawsuit seeks triple damages — a total of $1.18 million based on county estimates of loss — but how much money will actually be there to collect if the county wins is an open question.
Lawson is suspected of using the money to pay for such items as liquor, toys, jewelry, car equipment, TVs … not the sort of consumer items that will fetch a lot at auction.
But is that all? It really shouldn’t be. The people who live in Owen County — many of them — are rooted in their land. Families have their histories there. People know people and their grandparents.
You build up a trust based on familiarity. You don’t assume your county officials are stealing from you.
It is easy in such circumstances to forget that it’s fine to put your trust in someone, but when that person’s job is counting your money, you have to pay special attention to where the dollars are going.
Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan learned his own painful lesson when huge irregularities were discovered in the city’s public works department, irregularities that occurred despite a much larger government apparatus in place designed to keep an eye out.
A trusted former employee is now charged with stealing about $800,000 of public funds. And the city has developed a much more sophisticated system of financial checks and balances. Too late for this episode but at least it will be there for the next one.
Trust is good. It’s a necessary part of governance — in fact, it’s required in almost any human relationship. But when money is involved that’s not all that’s necessary.
Like Owen County, Monroe has had its share of failures of trust as well, with former auditor Amy Gerstman, who pleaded guilty to misusing county credit cards.
This is not a new phenomenon.
The state and those who run it should also see a lesson for themselves. We’ve pinched pennies for years. Perhaps it is time to recognize there’s a down side to the big squeeze, and some of that money might have been well spent on better funding for local government.
Too many counties, including Owen, are short of expertise, often also falling short of people who want to even consider taking on the pain of public office. There’s just too little there to work with.
That streak of old-fashioned conservatism, which runs so deep, is based on the premise of save a penny, save a pound.
The reality can be just the opposite.
The governor provides his own example.
His initial stand against the Affordable Care Act — which, thankfully, has since shifted toward common sense — was partly ideological, but also had a penny-pinching component.
The turndown of federal dollars essentially threw dollars out the window — with a negative bonus of adding suffering to poor Hoosiers.
Such a mindset permeates too much of Indiana government at any level, and turn short-term savings turn into long-term losses.