LAST WEEK, Lyon County Attorney Marc Goodman said that he was nearing a decision about what to do with the investigation into city finances. He received a report from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, requested more information and received that from the bureau.
Whether or not he finds reason to act on the matter, it is important that Goodman make a clear statement about the matter, outlining the reasons for the investigation and what the investigators found.
Since the investigation was announced last summer, Goodman and city officials have remained silent on the matter. The result has been a bumper crop of rumors. Reputations of city officials and the city itself are still being damaged by idle speculation based on no solid information at all.
Those rumors have become a silent participant in the debate over the county questions that will be on Tuesday’s ballot. The rumors have provided a lever to widen the perceived rural-urban split on the subject of county governance. Critics of the proposed county changes have painted the present county government as without flaw, in comparison with the city government, which is assumed to be, somehow, crooked.
For the good of the city and its government, this cannot be allowed to continue. Doubts about the honesty or competence of city government affect not only the community’s opinion of itself, but the opinions of outsiders as well.
Until the people see the facts for themselves, Emporia will continue to wrestle with phantoms.
Goodman needs to tell Emporia what it has been worrying about all these months.
For better or worse, the community needs answers.
Soon.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor