Editorial: Public money, trust demand answers from Freeport
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The proper response to a request for information about public money is not “It’s taken care of. Trust us.”
That should go without saying. The purpose of laws regarding open records is to make sure what public officials say can be proven or disproven because, sadly, sometimes people aren’t entirely honest.
That is why it is ridiculous that a lawyer should give an argument akin to a sideshow magician: Pay no attention to this thing you can’t see.
Freeport had money that disappeared in early 2020. What do we know about that money? Not much, because the borough is cagey about the information released.
The money was taken by someone working for Freeport’s emergency medical service. How much? Who took it? There are no answers.
People are talking about it, but solicitor Matthew Kalina sent the Tribune-Review a statement dismissing that essentially as hearsay. He confirmed a few points, namely that the EMS executive director and board did find that money had been misappropriated and because of that, the money was returned.
Still no information about who was responsible or how much, except the vague idea of several thousand dollars. The person in question was banned from the office and membership. Kalina said local and state police were told the EMS didn’t want to press charges “in exchange for the funds, including fees and interest, being returned by a certain date.”
If this was a private company, that would be fine. A municipality and its service agencies are not, however, dealing with private money. They are holding both the public money and the public trust. Without answering questions the people have a right to know, public money can vanish and public trust can be broken.
Kalina said the deal-making is a “common and effective means of achieving the most important goal” — the returned money. But is that the most important or just part of it?
A judge also could require the money be returned as a part of sentencing. It may take longer, yes, but would the EMS or the borough have been happy to make that deal with someone unrelated to the organizations who broke into their offices? Unlikely.
These are the kinds of questions that do not just pop out of nowhere. They fester, specifically because they are allowed to grow in the dark. When people know money was taken, they don’t want to have their concerns dismissed with an answer that reads a lot like evasive hocus pocus.