Trust is a crucial factor in the employer-employee relationship. That's true in the private sector and even more so in the public sector, where employees are entrusted with money taken from residents and companies through the power of taxation.
Based on revelations so far, that's the core issue in the April 8 firing of Benton County Comptroller Sarah Wilson.
What’s The Point?
The idea that a county judge might be forced to rehire a fired employee in whom he has lost all confidence seems unreasonable, event for government.
County Judge Bob Clinard, in her termination letter, told Wilson he received an anonymous tip that she had married Scott Stober. Normally, who a county employee is married to isn't the employer's business, but Stober has his own history with the county judge. He resigned as Clinard's public services administrator after his arrest July 30 in connection with two charges of theft of property, both felonies. Law enforcement officers accuse Stober and two other county employees of thefts from the county road department. Specifically, Stober stands accused of making county purchases of parts for personal vehicles and buying wood to build a deck on his home.
Stober has not been found guilty of anything. He and the other two men involved are scheduled for a jury trial July 22.
According to Clinard, he revealed the substance of his anonymous call to Wilson, who as comptroller plays a critical role in monitoring the county's finances. In the letter, he said Wilson didn't reveal the marriage. Then a second tipster offered the same information. Wilson, asked "point-blank if it was true," acknowledged the marriage to Stober, according to Clinard's letter.
"The citizens want to know that I have a comptroller who is managing our county money properly and is helping us prevent theft and misuse of county funds," Clinard's letter said. "I need to know that I have a person with good judgment. I now doubt your judgment since you were not forthcoming with me. The bottom line is that I have lost all confidence in you. And, given the circumstance, I don't see how I can regain confidence in you or how I can ask the taxpayers to have confidence in you."
Wilson has asked for her job back, and gets a hearing in May before Benton County justices of the peace to make her appeal.
At this stage, based on what's been revealed, it's unreasonable for a public employee to expect to be rehired into a place of public trust. Taxpayers demand better than that. Wilson will have her opportunity to appeal and make her case. But what's the conceivable outcome? Force an elected county judge to rehire someone he doesn't trust?
Surely, even government doesn't work that way.
Get well soon, Sen. Boozman
Northwest Arkansas got the unexpected news Tuesday morning that one of Arkansas' U.S. senators, Rogers' own John Boozman, was in the midst of heart surgery at Mercy Hospital. It apparently was unexpected for him, too.
At last report Tuesday, the senator had emerged from surgery and was doing well. That's indeed good news.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Boozman and his family. No matter what one's political stripes, it must be acknowledged Boozman is a nice guy in an environment that it's not easy to be. We commend him for that, and wish him a quick recovery. If such a thing had to happen, we're glad he's here in Northwest Arkansas among friends and family.
Commentary on 04/23/2014