Local Media’s Absurd Obsession with a Non-Scandal

Local media seems to have developed a peculiar obsession with the non-controversy of former Comptroller Darlene Green’s accidentally-issued checks. Checks she never cashed or benefited from in any way whatsoever. The Post-Dispatch’s Joe Holleman leads the pack of journalists working overtime to turn this absurd non-controversy into a scandal. He is not alone, though. The real question isn’t why the mistaken checks were generated. The events leading to their issuance have been widely reported. The real question is why the media is giving outsized attention to something so banal.

For readers who have not been following this issue, the saga begins with Ms. Green’s reelection loss. After the loss, the city’s former comptroller did what any former city employee who has decided to retire would do: seek to begin their pension payments. From there, a series of embarrassing mistakes occurred, eventually leading the city to erroneously issue paychecks to Ms. Green, as though she had simply transferred back into her pre-comptroller job in the city’s budget division.

It is important to stress that Ms. Green never actually received, cashed, or deposited those checks. According to the former comptroller, she was never even aware of the checks’ existence. This means that the mistake’s main financial cost to the city would be paying for personnel department employees to clean up the mess and some potential check cancellation fees. 

There was an embarrassing, but ultimately inconsequential, mistake made by city employees. It was fixed. Lessons need to be learned, training done, and department protocols updated. Still, there was essentially no damage done to the city or money lost. If anything, this episode showed that the system, flawed as it might be, caught the mistake before city dollars were lost. In a city with a saner political discourse, this would be the end of the story. Unfortunately, we do not live in that kind of city.

Presumably out of a need to generate clicks, the city’s media outlets have seized upon the “scandal” and offered it significant, sensationalized coverage. They have been joined by city officials. Needing distractions from other issues, Mayor Spencer has indicated her agreement that this is a major concern that demands additional investigation. “Our jaws are dropping over this,” said Mayor Spencer in a recent Post-Dispatch article. Comptroller Donna Baringer has also called for further investigation, and a city commission is now beginning an official inquiry.

Both the media and city elected officials would do the city a favor if they simply admitted that this isn’t a scandal. Unfortunately, that is unlikely. The non-scandal is a shiny object that is helpfully distracting city voters from the mayor’s seemingly illegal decision to unilaterally halt the city’s MWBE contractor diversity program. One of the above issues is an actual problem worthy of an official inquiry, and it’s not the one involving the city’s former comptroller. 

For my part, I wish Ms. Green a well-deserved and hopefully more peaceful retirement.