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WEDNESDAY'S EDITORIAL

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Corruption case deeply disappointing

~ the issue ~ John Rickenbacker’s guilty plea

~ Our opinion ~ No joy in outcome but reason

to be thankful abuse of public trust halted

After a federal grand jury indicted then-Orangeburg County Council Chairman John Rickenbacker on federal bribery and extortion charges in June, there was division aplenty about the federal sting that netted the veteran elected official.

Comments about Rickenbacker and the newspaper’s coverage of his case went on for days at TheTandD.com. Expressions of sympathy for the Rickenbacker family were followed by responses that an elected official accused of selling his influence deserves no sympathy. In defense of Rickenbacker were analogies about influence in the private world being routinely purchased. The responses: Public servants are held to a higher standard and corruption should be weeded out at every level.

Above all was a reminder that the case was just unfolding, that Rickenbacker was only accused, that he was presumed innocent and would not be guilty unless convicted in the federal courts.

Tuesday was the day in court for the man who had been the undisputed leader of county government and the very symbol of the county’s development and progress over a decade. Rickenbacker entered a guilty plea, admitting he solicited and accepted cash payment to push for sale of the publicly owned Regional Medical Center.

Rickenbacker, it was learned Tuesday, laid the groundwork for his plea by sending letters of resignation for both his council position and assistant principalship with Orangeburg Consolidated School District 5. That follows by just more than a month the suspended councilman’s re-election in a vote in which he had no opponent.

Some will say Rickenbacker should have stepped aside earlier, letting the people of his district have temporary representation and move ahead with electing a new council member. His plea of guilty reinforces their assessment.

To date, the former councilman has had no public comment about the case against him. He may hold fast in that posture of silence but there will long be many in Orangeburg County wanting to know exactly why a man so admired could allow himself to fall in the bed of public corruption. Public service is about public service, not enriching oneself via payoffs.

Sadly, the Rickenbacker plea is just the latest development in a county that has a recent history of public corruption cases. This past week, the former city finance director agreed to make restitution of $25,000 in the matter of embezzling city taxpayers’ money. And in the town of Santee, the police chief and clerk of the town court have been arrested and are under suspension amid allegations they took town money for their personal use.

As much as ferreting out corruption is a good thing and those who do the investigating are due public commendation, it remains deeply disappointing to see such cases unfold. Any time the public trust is abused and betrayed, there is a deterioration of confidence in all leadership. There are resulting power vacuums and divisions that only time and new leadership can erase.

John Rickenbacker’s contributions to his community and Orangeburg County as a whole should not be forgotten. He helped catapult development in the search for new jobs for a county that desperately needs them. He fueled political harmony with the city and racial unity in the county where there had been little of either. There can be no joy in his downfall.

But there is a lesson that seemingly has to be learned over and over again: Public positions do not belong to those holding them. Officials serve at the people’s discretion. When there is violation of the trust placed in public servants, there is a price to be paid. When the violation crosses the boundary of the law, there is punishment to follow. That is as it should be.

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