Every media organization in town was covering the Judy Green ethics hearing yesterday, but the best way to keep up with things while they were happening was by following Phillip Bailey’s tweets. The WFPL reporter was giving some great play-by-play, and left little doubt that the testimony proved that Green broke ethics rules, blamed it on her assistant, and that she was crying throughout while her appointed attorneys argued she was some sort of do-gooder Robin Hood character.
Telling details: Representatives of the 100 Black Men group, and her own current legislative aide, were called as witnesses but failed to show. And Dan Johnson, chair of the appropriations committee, said Green’s pass-through fib/excuse is NOT something he’d ever heard about. While other outlets reported Green “got emotional during testimony,” Bailey’s limited-character reporting was simple: “Green is crying.”
Green, obviously doesn’t have the ability to follow rules or manage her staff, and certainly is not ready to take responsibility for her actions. In the hearing, her ineptitude became clear.
Here’s a problem — she thinks she did nothing wrong, that giving away money to organizations in her district is a big part of her job. She thinks that handing out checks to charitable organizations makes her popular, that it’s part of what government should be doing. She expects to be exonerated because she simply broke rules, not to personally profit, but in order to give out more money to what she decided were deserving groups.
Most taxpayers would disagree. And let’s hope most of her colleagues, fed up with having their reputations tarnished by Green, will vote quickly to remove her from office.
Now it’s up to the Ethics Commission to recommend punishment, ranging from a simple letter of reprimand to removal from office.
