"For The Greater Good..."

“For the Greater Good” has long been an ethical conundrum, usually resolved with both sides making valid points. However, if the elements are examined in the “for the greater good” suppression of information surrounding the facts of the County of Cochise and the State of Arizona converting taxpayers’ money and federally-originated (Medicaid accounts receivable) funds into investments not commonly known, nor voted upon, by the taxpayers of Cochise County, this particular act has many flaws.

If “suppression of information” is to wear the almost noble crown of “For the Greater Good,” then the suppression must benefit most of the elements of society as a whole.
The main public body of Cochise County is comprised thusly:

a) Taxpayers, defined as working people and small businesses who, as believed
by the Main Public Body, provide most of the income for county operations.

b) School children, who need the benefits of the taxpayers’ efforts, federal
Funding and federal grants in order to participate in a first-class educational
program to enable them to become productive, taxpaying society themselves.

c) The aged, frail and disabled. Even though some pragmatic ethicists might
Deem this group as “not having a quality of life to pertain to the greater good
theorem,” and “not having a quality of life to promote their own good,” as in the Supreme Court decision regarding Terry Shiavo, there are two absolutes
present in this group:

1. These people were once viable members of a working, taxpaying
Society, and;
2. With certainty, every one of us, without death at an early age, will,
all too soon, join their ranks.

d) The poor, who are sometimes synonymous with:

1. Taxpayers (working people and small businesses). The working poor
are everywhere in the county and state, some of them stuck in dead-end jobs; some of them striving to better their lot through education; and, all hoping that their children will fare better than they, themselves, have fared. These people do not earn enough money to maintain what most would call an acceptable standard of life, much less enough for health care as enjoyed by others who make more money.

2. The poor who are on the roles of federal programs such as Social
Security, (SSI, SSD,SSW). The monthly allotment for these Social
Security is usually very low. They must have funded health care in order to barely survive.

We believe that the average person in Cochise County is a hard-working taxpayer with at least a basic knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil, and a brain which enables him to reason what is best for his own good; this average person is able to deal with the truth, and more importantly, deserves the truth from local and state government.

No one asked this average person if he wanted to invest potential school funding and Medicaid accounts receivable into NCFE through the Local Government Investment Pools. If someone had asked this person, he might have said “No, I don’t want to play the stock market,” or “Okay, you can invest my money, but I’d like to see what the National Securities Commission has to say about NCFE before you invest with them.”

The point is, no one asked the average person for his permission to use public funds – his money – and he wasn’t allowed to vote on it. And now that NCFE filed bankruptcy and our whole state (especially Cochise County) lost a ton on money – his money – no one is going to tell him.

I guess the state and local government feel that we, the taxpayers, are just smart enough to make decisions, and why should they tell us? We have no need to know. If we knew, well, then, we just might distrust all those administrators who think they are smart enough to think for us, and we just might question their authority in making our decisions for us. Therefore, the secret is kept “For the Greater Good.”

When County moneys (taxpayers’ money and Medicaid funding) were lost in the NCFE bankruptcy, we never heard even a whisper. Did this money become lost and then “just get found?” Of course not. It took some fancy dancin’ on the part of the County Administration, and yes, many of our Cochise County citizens were hurt badly, but, just looking through the windows like we all were, it looked like business as usual down on Melody Lane.

The Public Trust has been betrayed. We must not allow the state and local governments to cover up unlawful acts, even “for the greater good.” If a society does not preserve Justice, Justice will die. We must preserve Justice for the sake of Justice, itself, and for those Americans who will need Justice after we are gone. When a government commits an unlawful act and keeps it hidden, irreparable harm is done to the government, itself. A government stained with corruption cannot serve the society which it governs, for it has lost the trust of that society.

LGIPs (local government investment pools) are legal. Among the plethora of questions that many of us have are: How did they become legal? We didn’t vote on them. Who deemed them “legal?” For that matter, how can they be legal when they don’t appear to conform to basic United States doctrine, such as the Sherman and Clayton acts? I.e., Covert investments in any particular company or brokerage would give unfair advantages to that particular company or brokerage on the commerce market.

To what extent will the county and state go to keep secret the loss of one hundred thirty one million dollars in a very bad investment decision? They will go to any extent, including death and destruction, as long as it is not theirs.

My business, Angel Team Home Care, was lost due to the county’s investment in NCFE and NCFE’s subsequent bankruptcy. Instead of telling my company the truth, the county withheld our payments for services rendered, citing fictitious “billing errors.” They hired a high-priced attorney from Phoenix to defend them (at taxpayer’s expense, I’m sure) and “found a way to do away with our attorney.” All this to keep their dirty secret “for our greater good.”

Since LGIPs are legal, our next question would be: Why are they a pseudo-secret? We need to find out for the sake of Justice. Corruption will kill a government only as fast as apathy will let it.