East St. Louis’s coverage gap

We guess Joe W. Lewis Jr.’s word was his bond, because there’s sure no evidence that he and East St. Louis were covered against theft or incompetence during the six years he served as city treasurer.

Lewis is out of office because he lost the April election. The returning treasurer, Charlotte Moore, is bonded to the tune of $2.4 million.

So what happens if months from now the auditors or police discover some financial funny business that took place on Lewis’s watch? Well, that’s just tough. It’ll be the city’s problem and the city’s loss.

You’ve gotta wonder: Could a guy whose personal finances were such a hash even obtain a bond? Maybe not.

How can someone who can’t follow the basic protocol of the office become the treasurer of the national group of public treasurers?

Why is the system so loosey-goosey that the chief judge is coming up with his own interpretation of the public bonding law that limits him to looking at county employee bonds and gets him out of a little extra work that would protect our county’s municipal finances?

Why doesn’t the state bother tracking the bonds — they certainly know whether you have car insurance — so it knows whether public dollars are protected?

Silly to expect the routine tasks of protecting taxpayers to be any kind of priority in this area or this state.

This story was originally published July 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "East St. Louis’s coverage gap."