Oversight

Elected leaders must first trust, then verify

Published: Sunday, February 28, 2010 1:08 PM EST

The buck stops at the top. Sooner or later all presidents find this out, but this truism also applies at the local level of government, where elected officials must perform their duty and oversee the administrators they hire.

The debacle in Stevensville is a prime example of what can happen when a board, in this case the Village Council, falls short of that duty. With a lack of effective oversight, former Village Manager Todd Garner allegedly embezzled nearly $300,000 during his three-year tenure and steered the village toward many blunders that have cost village taxpayers dearly.

Gardner was arraigned last week in federal court, where he pleaded not guilty.

This sordid episode ought to serve as a cautionary tale to every elected official in Southwest Michigan. Yes, there needs to be trust between elected officials and the managers they hire to run day-to-day municipal or school affairs, but that trust cannot blind. Elected representatives are there to perform a job and serve the people who put them in office. They are not there merely to build a resume or to rubber-stamp the requests of professional managers.

We are not suggesting that professional managers or school administrators are by nature untrustworthy. In fact, in our experience the vast majority are decent, hard-working people trying to do the right thing by taxpayers. And there are certainly plenty of misguided elected representatives in office doing a poor job in their own right. But in our system of government, citizens elect representatives to keep an eye out for trouble and to assume the burden of leadership.

So, to all those good folks out there who have been elected and entrusted by your constituents, we present this important reminder: Trust - but verify. To do less is to invite all sorts of trouble.