New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that the Pension Scandal, which Turk tells me needs a really good name that doesn’t include a “gate” on the end, will involved “hundreds and hundreds” of attorneys.

According to Law.com,

While his investigators have only exposed the “tip of the iceberg” so far, Cuomo said the problem is not limited to a few school districts on Long Island which were initially exposed for having put attorneys doing work for the districts on the public pension rolls.

Cuomo said the problem is also evident at BOCES school districts, “special” districts like sewer or water districts and towns and villages.

I’m shocked, shocked.  Like this wasn’t part of the message in this op-ed in Newsday.  Like lawyers didn’t have enough credibility problems with the public.  Like they didn’t knew better.

“In many ways, this situation is the public integrity version of death by a thousand cuts,” Cuomo said. “Ten thousand governments. Little scams. Chronic widespread corruption and fraud. And in the end, the taxpayers bleed millions of dollars.”

Cuomo is exactly right, though across New York the petty tyrants will dispute this characterization and curse the ground he walks on. 

The patchwork quilt of what I call “baby governments” is rife with corruption, but it’s mostly of the petty sort.  A dime here, a dollar there, a harmless little violation of the open meetings law, a blow-off of the freedom of information law.  Selective and vindictive resolution of problems or enforcement of law.  That sort of stuff.  The sort that allows the big fish in tiny little ponds to feel self-important and powerful, all on someone else’s dime.

In fairness to the many lawyers involved, they likely never gave their deeds enough thought to realize that they were wrong.  This was a perk of the job, as far as they understood, and they gratefully accepted the benefit of serving the public for many years when the pension checks rolled in.  If everybody drives 70 in a 55 zone, it isn’t really wrong, is it?

But while Cuomo’s focus is on the lawyers, and you bet your bottom dollar that there will be plenty of folks across New York who will use this as proof positive the lawyers are inherently corrupt, self-serving and untrustworthy vultures who prey on the people for their own benefit, it’s wrong to saddle only the lawyers with the blame.

We don’t elect municipal lawyers.  We elect school board members, commissioners, mayors and trustees.  These are not people pressed into service against their will; They run for office.  When we elect these people, we entrust them with the fulfillment of the duties that come with the post.  It doesn’t pay much, if anything, and it can take a great deal of time, effort and thought to perform these duties.  Or at least perform them well.

In many instances, possibly most, these elected officials are engaged in a huge farce.  We pay for this farce, but that’s only right since we elected these people in the first place.  You get the government you deserve.

While often well-intended (though not always), some elected officials quickly learn that they lack the basic competencies for the job.  Others never learn this, instead believing that they’ve gained sudden brilliance by osmosis, sitting on the chair reserved for the President of the School Board.  It’s an amazing thing to watch, as yesterday’s regular guy becomes today’s paternalistic know-it-all.

But because they lack the competencies, they resort to their “professionals”.  In other words, the putative elected decision-makers defer to the professionals, whether they be District Superintendents, Municipal Lawyers, Engineers, whatever, and then, admirably perform the role of rubber stamp.  Afterward, they pat themselves on the back for a job well done, never once realizing that they’ve done nothing other than turned over the reigns to some unelected official and reduced themselves to a nullity.

Do elected officials get a free pass for being well-intended but ignorant and incompetent?  Are they absolved of sin because they gave away their responsibility to conceal the fact that they can’t actually perform the function for which they were elected?  And we’re not talking here about the lazy, abusive or malevolent.  These are the good ones.

Much as it pains me, I’m constrained to answer yes. To some extent, they are absolved of their sins, since they must rely on the expertise of their retained professionals to provide advice requiring specialized knowledge.  If not, why bother having lawyers at all?

But they are not give a total free pass.  Much of what happens does not require specialized knowledge, though it is often easier to defer to the professionals than do any thinking on their own.  Worse still, there are often clear indications that something is seriously awry that should raise the red flag about the advice they are being given, even to someone who hasn’t got the common sense of a gnat.  Hiding behind advice that doesn’t pass the smell test, or even advice that just emits a slightly pungent odor, is an abdication of responsibility, and it is culpable conduct. 

Passing the blame is a time-honored sport.  But that doesn’t make it right or acceptable.  While Attorney General Cuomo is busy putting an end to the sort of corruption that has permeated baby governments forever, perhaps he can address the root sources of these problems so that the next group of municipal lawyers to fill the empty official seats won’t eventually return us to the same system of failure, incompetence, waste and ultimately corruption. 

Now, does anybody have a really cool name for this scandal that doesn’t include the word “gate” in it?