At yesterday’s Orange County Legislature Rules Committee, legislator Roxanne Donnery gave a presentation on the case for an Office of Public Accountability (or, as it is sometimes called, inspector general.)  To bolster her case, she brought newspaper clippings of scandals from recent years that presumably an Office of Public Accountability would have helped investigate.  (Additional coverage of the meeting here.)

Some of the scandals mentioned included actions of the county Republican party chairman.  Other articles implicated friends of County Executive Diana.

An inspector general looks for fraud, waste and abuse in government.

In explaining why she would not be voting for the law to create an Office of Public Accountability, Republican Majority Leader Melissa Bonacic questioned the veracity of the newspaper articles.

Legislator Dan Depew reasoned that since the voters had elected the Republicans and Diana, that therefore, they supported his view on this particular issue that this office was not needed.

Legislator Leigh Benton reiterated the argument that all the legislators are inspectors general, and that he could be approached if someone felt something was wrong.

In the end, the vote was along party lines, with the Republican majority defeating the measure.

Full video of the presentation and discussion (or download):