Positive Yet Premature?

Today I commend to you an article at the Maryland Matters website.

A tale of two counties, a tale of two cultures, David Plymyer, Maryland Matters

Writer David Plymyer, the (retired) Anne Arundel County attorney, compares Howard and Baltimore Counties in a look at how each pursued the institution of an independent Inspector General. He gives Howard County high marks.

Role models and good examples can be hard to find in state and local government. That is why it is worthwhile to highlight the constructive manner in which elected officials in Howard County worked with county residents to craft a charter amendment establishing a new, independent Office of Inspector General (OIG). Howard County voters overwhelmingly approved the amendment on Nov. 5.

For me the most educational part of the article was the focus on where Baltimore County leadership had waffled in supporting an independent OIG and why. Plymyer uses term Soft Corruption.

The term “soft corruption” refers to actions that, while not illegal, are intended to gain political power or personal benefit rather than to advance the public interest. It is influence-peddling every bit as harmful as the cash-in-white-envelopes criminal corruption for which Baltimore County once was known.

He posits the theory that:

The more soft corruption there is, the higher the index and the greater the resistance by elected officials to good government measures.

That’s interesting to me in light of all the hocolocal types who agitated in favor of an OIG precisely because they believe that there’s corruption behind every tree in County Government. If Plymyer’s theory holds, we would have seen a much more fraught and combative process in establishing an OIG here. Put simply: the more you have to hide, the more you would resist independent oversight.

Hmm.

To be fair, the article is comparing apples and oranges. I kind of hate to admit it since Howard County is coming off so well here. But Plymyer is comparing an episode concerning the Baltimore County Executive after the OIG was established with the process of creating that role here in Howard County. Not the same thing. Perhaps we all say we’re in support of good government measures until someone starts poking around in places that make us uncomfortable.

No, I don’t for one minute think there’s a hotbed of corruption to be found in HoCo - - soft or otherwise - - but let’s be honest. How we deal with this new office is yet untested. The Council has laid the groundwork, the voters have approved the measure, but we haven’t actually driven the car off the lot yet.

While it’s nice to read such positive words over at Maryland Matters, I’m not sure we can pat ourselves on the back just yet.

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