My thoughts here
are probably going to be poorly organized, but I'm going for it anyway.
The train of
thought started with Jeff Cogen, as the news items started that would turn him
into a former Multnomah County Chairman:
Initially everyone
was insisting that he played no role in Sonia Manhas getting her position,
which based on this article looks less true than it originally seemed. Even if
that had been true, perhaps the best illustration of how things go wrong would
be when it came out that Manhas got the budget she requested, which doubled it
from the previous year.
Now, there may have
been valid reasons for doubling the budget, but once you find out that the
approver is having an affair with the requester, it looks pretty fishy. If the
relationship had been disclosed then you could do things like having a third
party review the request, though this might just be one of those situations
where you don't want people having personal relationships, but of course, there
is adultery involved, so no one wanted to disclose.
The point is that
by all accounts Cogen was doing a good job, but that's sunk. Too many of his
decisions can be called into question now, and because the trust is lost, his
abilities are now lost.
It was the right
thing to resign - his attempts to fight it initially showed bad judgment - but
obviously the much better thing to have done would have been to not cheat on
his wife. If there are problems in the marriage, deal with them openly and
honestly. Secrets get in the way.
Obviously we could
make correlations to Anthony Weiner here, and we could spend a lot of time
talking about stupid men and the dogs they are, but that's not really what is
eating at me here, so I am going to share another story, that is very gossipy
in nature.
About two years ago
there was controversy over Portland's reluctance to
participate in the join-terrorism task force because they would not have access
to full information. Now, the rumor I cannot substantiate is that the
information issue was actually that two relevant people were not approved after
their background checks.
Now, at that point,
we all already knew about Beau Breedlove, so it's not necessarily a Sam Adams
issue, but I think the reminder there is that if you have sensitive
information, you do not want someone who is vulnerable to blackmail. You don't
want decisions made by people whose judgment has been compromised by other
things they have done.
Perhaps the
ridiculous part is that people are really very forgiving about those who are
open. People tried to take Weiner back. Spitzer is not still living in
disgrace. Adams is finishing his term, and a beloved extra
on Portlandia. You can debate whether that's a good thing or not, but that's
how it goes. That's not to say that no one would have any qualms about
politicians never hiding their sex habits, but when you are unapologetic a lot
of people seem to accept that no apology is required.
Once you keep
things secret, though, you have created a weakness, and it's a weakness that
can be a breeding ground for all sorts of problems.
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