Recently, Commissioner Jeff Bergosh challenged Sheriff Morgan on his spending as Morgan acted out regarding the budget of the county. Morgan’s has misappropriated money from the LET fund to aid to private organizations for the political capital and possible monetary kickback, that smacks of backroom deals. No one seems to care. Not the Governor; not the Attorney General. The big question here is WHY?
So when Commissioner Bergosh was the first to MAN UP and say he wanted to see justification of how this money is spent ie fiscal responsibility, I was able to see the light at the end of the corruption tunnel. Such scrutiny, especially retroactively, would uncover numerous “good ole boy” transactions. However, upon looking at the LET report for August, I see further pillaging of the LET fund since that pronouncement by the commissioner. Assuming this was done as a rebellious act by the child Sheriff, I notified Commissioner Bergosh of the continuation of the mishandling of the money that should be going to better use. Sadly, I was informed that, it will be September 9th, before anyone takes away Morgan’s checkbook.
I was flabbergasted. Morgan can continue to thumb his nose and spend “as he sees fit” just like Haines asserted he would in a recent social media comment. In effect, Morgan has a thousand dollars to just light a match to, without an ounce of oversight for another few weeks. The board agreed to tackle this issue after the budget is finalized.
To the public, this looks very much like the remedy the State Attorney said should put in place in the summer of 2016. In the FUTURE, someone will look into and redirect the crooked Sheriff. The lack of immediate action gives credence to the Sheriff’s actions or at the least minimizes the wrong of it by not addressing it for what it really is, misuse of governmental money which is what the BOCC is responsible for. Every dollar, hereafter that is spent by the child Sheriff is done so with the blessing of the BOCC and a huge “screw you” to the citizens.
I get that the BOCC is covered up in issues but money management is huge and so is the doing the greater good for the most people. Ethically, that is the contract of trust with the public that is being broken with every check. Silence consents. The Board is remaining silent until they can get to it, but at what cost?
This quote speaks to the court system but equally applies to the county leaders.
Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger noted in an address to the American Bar Association in 1970: “A sense of confidence in the courts is essential to maintain the fabric of ordered liberty for a free people and three things could destroy that confidence and do incalculable damage to society: that people come to believe that inefficiency and delay will drain even a just judgment of its value; that people who have long been exploited in the smaller transactions of daily life come to believe that courts cannot vindicate their legal rights from fraud and over-reaching; that people come to believe the law – in the larger sense – cannot fulfill its primary function to protect them and their families in their homes, at their work, and on the public streets.
Conjuring Justice 