Error 404: Ethical contracting not found

In most worlds we’d call it bribery if you take money from a business associate before making a deal. In St. Clair County it just appears to be good business.

Before his busy hands and lack of sexual boundaries bounced Bob Delaney from the St. Clair County Clerk’s office in 2013, he took $3,000 in contributions from Platinum Technology. Then he got the St. Clair County Board to hire Platinum for $826,560 in a no-bid contract to provide election services from 2014 through 2017.

His latest indiscretion came to light because Platinum crashed on election night and failed to promptly report election results as they’d been paid to do.

Everyone pretty much knows Delaney wasn’t much for worrying about appearances, but the rest of the county leadership should take note of this episode for two reasons.

First, it looks corrupt if you take money from those with whom you do business, and let’s not forget that business is being conducted with taxpayers’ money. Clinton County Clerk Mary Rakers said this about that: “That would be — I would think — a conflict of interest.”

Second, it may be legal to award no-bid contracts for professional services, but that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t take a political scientist to figure out that the public’s money goes farther if several businesses compete for an $826,560 contract. That business also might be more responsive to its customers and ensure its systems can handle the job for which they are being hired.

Pay-to-play and no-bid contracts were the hallmarks of that former governor who remains in prison. Everyone should expect better from our elected leaders, and tell them when their judgment gets all Blagojeviched up.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Error 404: Ethical contracting not found."