LITTLE ROCK — Dear State Treasurer: Be gone.

Your latest appearance before a legislative committee-just last Friday-only confirms what has been evident for months now: You have no business handling other people’s money, especially the public’s.

According to the auditors, you cost the state $783,835 by selling bonds before their maturity date-through just one brokerage firm. And that you bought some $1.69 billion in bonds from one broker, almost double the amount purchased from other brokers. That’s the word from Jon Moore, the deputy legislative auditor who testified before the Legislative Audit Committee on Friday.

A couple of the committee’s members-Jason Rapert of Bigelow and David Meeks of Conway drew the obvious conclusion:

Ms. Shoffner, you need to resign.

You told this legislative committee that you’re hiring a new manager to help you handle the state’s investments-pretty much an admission that you’ve mismanaged them by concentrating so much of the state’s bond business with a single broker.

Naturally enough, a broker you favored with all this business defends your decisions. How’s that for an objective source? No conflict of interest there.

The committee has decided to ask law enforcement agencies to look into some of your bond deals as the state’s treasurer-about $434,000 worth of them at last report. And that you made those transactions, some 30 of them, solely on the advice of the brokers-without analyzing the merits of selling the bonds the state held.

Even if you didn’t violate the law (stupidity is not yet a criminal offense), you need to get your stuff together and clear out of the treasurer’s office ASAP.

If not, there’s always impeachment. With a session of the Legislature fast approaching, now would be a good time to deal with your dubious stewardship of public funds, which might be summed up as gross misconduct. Sure enough, that’s one of the grounds for impeachment cited by the far-seeing statesmen who drew up Article 15 of the state’s constitution.

Madam Treasurer, there’s a way you can avoid putting the legislators, the state and yourself through all that trouble and commotion:

Resign.

Now.

You’ve tarried much too long.

In short, at the risk of repeating ourselves:

Be gone.

Editorial, Pages 14 on 12/18/2012