Spring cleaning in Collinsville

Spring cleaning is coming late to Collinsville, where they are opening the windows, hauling the filing cabinets out into the yard and letting a little sunshine cleanse things.

Whether the motives are honesty, political power or trying to save the city manager, we’re glad to see it happening. By the way, city manager and former police chief Scott Williams looks like the only one who’s been doing his job with city residents in mind.

Collinsville City Council members Nancy Moss and Jeff Kypta outed Mayor John Miller for accepting loads of topsoil from a city contractor — talk about political dirt. Miller took the topsoil, then 10 months later paid for it after a complaint was lodged.

They also took aim at fellow Councilwoman Cheryl Brombolich for using city credit cards for her own benefit while city clerk and trying to cover it up.

Brombolich previously was investigated for financial funny business in 2006 while she handled the Lady Kahoks Basketball Booster Club finances. She couldn’t prove her claims of being owed the money when she spent club funds in Florida, but no charges were filed. Then when she couldn’t get the finance director to cover up for her, she abruptly quit her city job and repaid the city for the credit card use.

In neither case does the attempt to “make it right” make anything they did right. Their actions after being caught certainly look like admissions of guilt.

In the best case scenario, Miller and Brombolich may just be clueless. In the worst case scenario, they may think they are entitled and thus corrupt.

Neither scenario makes them the kind of public servant who inspires confidence. Both should consider resigning, but at least this bit of house cleaning lets voters know that the names they see on the ballot could easily have appeared on criminal charges.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Spring cleaning in Collinsville."