Blog note: this editorial references a grand jury report on the subject.
The identity of the federal whistleblower who reported the president’s potentially impeachable dealings with Ukraine remains unknown. Federal law grants anonymity to whistleblowers to help shield them from retaliation. And if some California whistleblower were to drop a bombshell on a top state official or even an ordinary state worker, that person would be safely anonymous, too.
Then there’s Sonoma County. A whistleblower uncovering trouble at the county or one of its cities isn’t assured of anonymity. That should change.
This isn’t a new issue. Nearly a decade ago, a county grand jury report recommended that Sonoma County and its cities band together to create a unified whistleblower system that would protect public employees and provide everyone with a single point to report misbehavior.
“ ‘Whistleblowing’ is an activity that requires the utmost confidentiality and trust. Absent the confidentiality and trust that the information will be well handled, whistleblowing will not occur and important information needed to effectively confront waste, fraud and abuse will not be available,” the grand jury concluded. “Every governmental unit: county, city, school board or special district should encourage employees and citizens alike to report suspected waste, fraud or abuse issues to a central county reporting location.”
A handful of California counties and cities have such laws on the books, but not here. The only option that public employees have when they see local government waste is to report it to the state hotline. But from there, it will typically be routed back to the local government where there no longer is a promise of anonymity.
In theory, state law protects government workers from retaliation, but without anonymity that’s hard to enforce. Even if there isn’t direct retaliation — like firing a whistleblower or passing him or her over for a promotion — it’s hardly going to be a comfortable work environment if your supervisor knows you reported misdeeds.
In 2014, Sonoma County faced a lawsuit over an alleged retaliatory firing of a whistleblower.
Whistleblower laws are necessary because watchdogs in the media and among the public are unable to watch everything that government does. We rely on the integrity of state employees to report when they see someone doing something they shouldn’t. For trivial offenses, that should just be a conversation about doing better. For serious instances of waste, fraud and abuse, however, a report needs to go up the chain of command and be made public.
The state auditor releases an annual report of whistleblower investigations. In just the first half of 2018, the state auditor received nearly 1,100 calls or inquiries from whistleblowers. Thanks to such reports, investigators identified $427,000 in inappropriate expenditures. They also found improper hiring and promotions and several state employees who routinely used state vehicles for personal trips. That all adds up, and every dollar so wasted is unavailable for the programs that taxpayers think they are funding.
Sonoma County and its cities don’t need to reinvent the wheel. They can model a local program on the many that have succeeded elsewhere in California.
We doubt that anyone local is threatening Ukrainians or burning through hundreds of thousands of dollars on the sly. But then again, we’d never know unless an enterprising reporter gets lucky — or someone blows the whistle.
October 13, 2019
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
By The Editorial Board
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