Public trust in government has fallen sharply since the 1950s when 70% of Americans had a high degree of trust in their elected officials and the institutions they governed. By the late 1970s, trust in government was barely above 30% and by last fall only one in five Americans believed government was doing the “right thing just about always or most of the time.”
In Orange County this trend has deepened with two high profile political corruption cases in past three years. The mayor of Anaheim, the most populous city in the county, was sentenced today to 60 days in jail and $55,000 in fines after pleading guilty to four felony charges, including obstruction of justice. At the county level, a former county supervisor who resigned last fall will be sentenced in the coming months after he pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges and enriching his family with thousands of dollars of federal COVID bailout money. Trust, integrity and reliability in our government—nationally and locally-has become almost a daily topic over our morning coffee.
Today, I interviewed Supervisors Janet Nguyen and Vince Sarmiento for 60 minutes at the OC Forum about how best to restore integrity in the County of Orange. Both agreed it will take time to rebuild the public trust lost in the wake of these cases. They were candid, dismayed at the behavior and promised to put in place measures to prevent this from happening again. Sadly, however, restoring trust does not happen overnight.
Do we have the patience and conviction to get it done?