It’s Official: The Public Trust Is Taking a Bad Beating

What is this, Tombstone Territory?

Somebody ought to tear down the highway signs leading into Orange County and put up new ones: “Proceed With Caution--Social and Moral Breakdown in Progress.�

Is this the way it looks when the world goes completely mad?

For reasons my brain can’t comprehend, Orange County has turned into a training site for official scandal, alleged and/or proved. The alleged misconduct seems to know no bounds--it runs through school districts, city halls, police departments, county government and, most recently, charitable institutions.

In short, all the places where citizens are supposed to be able to place their trust.

I’m not even pretending to have a complete count, but how’s this for a running tab over the last few months:

* A municipal finance officer goes to prison after diverting nearly $2 million to his personal use.

* A county supervisor is under investigation by the district attorney’s office for alleged conflicts of interest.

* A school district official is being investigated for allegedly diverting funds to his personal use.

* A veteran police chief is placed on administrative leave after being accused of a rape that allegedly occurred 11 years ago.

* A city councilman gets probation after pleading guilty to several counts of conflict of interest.

* The state attorney general sues an Irvine man who runs several charities for allegedly bilking the public.

* The head of a temporary housing agency is charged on multiple counts of using funds for his personal use.

I’m not sure that Tammany Hall ever had a better year than this.

If it weren’t for the part about being hit over the head, I’d rather be held up by a guy on the street than a guy behind a desk cooking the books.

Public officials who rob you take more than your money. Their breach of public trust chips away at your faith in government and the society and makes you wonder whom you can trust. As despicable as that is, you can double the damage, as far as I’m concerned, when it involves charities fraud. At a time when people are already strapped for disposable cash, reading articles about alleged corruption in charities has got to make potential donors reluctant. The result is that needy people suffer even more.

Your guess is as good as mine about the whys and wherefores. In most cases the obvious thematic link is money, and the conventional wisdom around here has always been that because Southern California smacks of material wealth, the pursuit of it makes people do nasty things.

That makes perfect sense but only addresses the question of why people want to have more money. We probably know the answer to that already.

More interesting coffee shop talk, it seems to me, is why they think they can get away with it. Do they see a world already gone mad and think they can slink undetected through the chaos and get theirs while everyone is preoccupied? Or do they have such little regard for the system that they know so well that they think they won’t get caught? Or do they look at the low apprehension level of street criminals and assume that, as a practical matter, they’re even less likely to be caught? Or do they somehow convince themselves that, even if caught, they won’t be jailed?

Or, perhaps worse yet for the rest of us, do they think that no one cares?

Do they factor into their thinking that someone who knocks over a convenience store for a couple hundred bucks may do more years in jail than Michael Milken, convicted of defrauding untold numbers of people of millions of dollars? Do they assuage themselves with the knowledge that large segments of the public still view Milken with awe?

Beats me. I don’t know why they do it.

I just know that, as the larger society, we seem much more eager to rail at the illegal immigrant family that tries to get their child into kindergarten than we do at the guy in the suit and tie who hoses us for millions of dollars.

While lots of people run around pontificating about the presumed moral lapses of immigrants or other targeted minority groups, the charges mount against the supposed defenders of the faith.

I haven’t heard a single outcry against this kind of official misconduct. The reaction is more likely to be strange fascination over the complexity or daring of their crimes.

Maybe it always has and will ever be thus, whether it’s the lawlessness of Tombstone in the Old West or some futuristic society also running amok.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.