Beach man abuses credit card, charged with embezzlement

And he wasn’t missing any receipts.

At least three bureau officials reviewed [Reggie] Stevenson’s charges every month. But they usually verified only that the charges matched the receipts that Stevenson presented. They did not question the appropriateness of the expenses, even though that’s required by city policy, Remias said.

“That’s where the big gap is,” Remias said. “It doesn’t matter how many people look at the documentation if nobody is actually reviewing the nature of the expenses and questioning the nature of the expenses.”

When combined with the city-paid private club memberships – including that of Norfolk’s new superintendent, who didn’t even know what Town Point Club was – I’ve come to the conclusion that the cocoon of government needs a dose of reality from the outside on a regular basis.

When I was teaching at ODU, the accounting scandals of the day revealed a need to teach ethics as a part of every single course. My license requires an ethics course each year. These days, it appears very few people know what ethics means, and are simply too willing to think that either a) everyone does it or b) no one would do anything wrong. Improperly designed procedures leave gaps for both.

Something’s gotta give. I’d much prefer it to be competent, ethical people in place. But lately both of those qualities seem to be in short supply. Perhaps the answer is a citizen panel, comprised of ordinary folks – not the usual suspects, to review policies and procedures. They can’t do any worse than what we’ve got now. And at least they might bring some common sense to the issues.