Good ‘ol boy network alive and well (local government).

The BBQ Pit
1

Damn. Just damn. My Wife and I always wondered why tax increases for better schools, roads or fire protection never seem to pass in this county. Well, after 15 years, I’m starting to understand. 15 years of the ‘Good ‘ol boy network’ making the front pages of the local newspaper. I’m sort of ashamed that it took me this long to catch on.

Case in point. In a period of 3 years a local small town fire chief ran up $68,388 worth of charges to a credit card issued to him by the county. A card to be used for fire department business.

A sample of the charges –

• $18,562 – cash advances at a nearby casino
• $2,121 – monies paid to the chiefs on the side construction business
• $1,411 – lingerie. (Yep over a grand in undies.)
• $3,765 – cash advance checks
• $19,027 – travel
• $805 – charged in strip clubs
• $5,409 – personal vehicle insurance and repairs.
• $3,000 – sons wedding in Las Vegas
It gets better. The Fire Chiefs attorney is a former DA for the county. His Wife used to work in the DA’s office. The former DA is now in private practice and is DEFENDING this ass.

And better. The former book keeper for the fire district was implicated for embezzling $100,000 last September. Lots of finger pointing is going on there.

And a big hearty laugh to the former fire protection chief that says that “any embezzlement allegations are hard to believe”. This guy was suspended. PC for fired. Don’t remember what he did.

And better still. Seems that two of the fire districts board members ‘benefited’ from some trips to Las Vegas where fire department credit cards where used.

This has been going on since Jan 1, 2004. All while fundraisers where being held to try to raise money for this poor under funded fire district.

Three years. And nobody caught it.

The good news is that the CBI is taking this over (Colorado Bureau of Investigation) perhaps they can clean house enough so that we can gain a little bit of trust in our local government.

My Wife and I work for county government. We live in the corrupt county, but work for the county next door. ALL of our t’s are crossed and all of our I’s are dotted. We work hard and do our very best to do a good job for those that we work for. We sure as shit don’t STEAL from them. Unfortunately that seems to be the norm in the county that I live in.

Gives people like my Wife and I a bad name.

Boss Hogg and the good ‘ol boy network is alive and well in Park County Colorado. Where are the Duke boys when you need them.

2

Perhaps they were educated by the Dallas School District as to the proper use of credit cards.

3

Why is this wrong?

4

Well, obviously it’s not wrong for an accused person to employ the services of a member of the bar in defending himself against criminal charges. I suspect enipla has concern that this guy’s defense attorney will be able to use his relationship with his former office to influence the prosecution to “take a dive”, as it were.

Whether that really is enipla’s concern, and if so, whether in the county under discussion, that’s a realistic concern, are not questions I feel comfortable taking a definitive stand on, at the moment.

5

Yep. In a small county like ours I suspect that that former DA knows a lot of people here.

That’s OK. It can’t be helped.

That’s the way it is in small communities.

But, the former DA that used to defend lawsuits against the county is now working privately to defend a county employee.

That’s OK too. But we all smell something.

While working as a DA she had a working and social relationship with the defendants Wife.

Acceptable, but maybe a little weird. It is the good ‘ol boy network after all.

That’s when the CBI came in asking questions. They smell something too.

What bothers me most is that this shit seems to happen again and again. I don’t think that the county commissioners are involved directly, but they turn a blind eye to those that are.

It seems to me that the Fire Chief screwed up again and again and is out of control. And his bosses (county commissioners) did nothing, or could do nothing to stop it.

Now, the Fire Chief has the ex county DA as his defense attorney.

This shit has been in the monthly paper so much that I suspect that the CBI will step in and get to the bottom of it.

I hope so.

6

Isn’t that where the real life city of South Park is located?

7

As a fellow Coloradoan, I’m dying of curiosity. Where exactly is all of this going down?

8

Local government is great for seeing the best of our political system at work and the worst. Some of the most noble, trustworthy, honest, hardworking politicians and government employees are employed by county governments. And some of the most petty, ignobale, dishonorable, dishonest, and corrupt are employed by county governments.

My hometown has had not dissimilar situations for years with a petty, corrupt mayor (of a town with around 25,000 residents) who has been in power since I was like 15 (he’s literally been in office for like 30 years) and who more or less controls the small town police department with an iron fist with tons of improprieties suggested over the years (including cocaine smuggling perpetrated by the police.)

9

I don’t see why it’s any different from federal government. It’s just that Congress’s credit card is called “legislation”.

10

In addition to the Dukes, you should also call Billy Jack and Buford Pusser.

11

Here in MA, we just learned that the “Big Dig” is going to coat another $1 billion! (They have to fix the shoddy work and design defects). So your corruption is peanusts-and our crooked politicians don’t go to jail! They get promoted! :smack:

12

Yeah, but traffic is a lot better these days, right? Right?

The story in the OP is making me feel a little guilty. Years ago my brother travelled by using the credit card of a small city’s mayor. My brother took me out to dinner. I’m not sure if he ever paid the mayor back for my meal. (My brother’s was a business expense.) At least the mayor never bought me lingerie.

13

That was always my beef with Ronald Reagan Republicans who always asserted that things were best handled by the local government as opposed to the national government. Having dealt with the local government I thought anyone who voluntarily wanted to deal with them was crazy.

14

Yeah. God only knows there’s never been corruption at the federal level.

15

Yep. South Park is actually an area, or geologic feature. I beleive the show is fashioned after Fairplay Colorado. Perhaps Alma too.

16

Park County/Hartsel Fire Protection District.

17

It’s worked so well here in Chicagoland, the fiefdom of King Richard II.

18

It wasn’t that local government was per se better than national. It was that it wasn’t as large, hence could be more easily tracked and observed. Of course, that presumes people care enough, and some muncipalities don’t.

19

Now that’s funny shit right there. I wonder if it was in that order?

20

Due to the close connections, if I lived in Park County, I’d ask the DA if it would not be more appropriate to borrow prosecutors from another county. I know it’s been done here in Denver metro, though I can’t remember the specific case.