Pols just don't get the public trust issue

This one should be interesting, maybe even instructional for our public officials who sometimes don’t seem to understand why citizens watch them so carefully and always assume the worst.

A county-owned vehicle being driven by Wakulla County Sheriff David Harvey struck another vehicle. The sheriff left the scene, driving less than a mile to his home to call-in the accident report. No one was injured.

Doesn’t seem like such a big deal, right?

But what would have happened if it was Joe or Jane Citizen? That is really the question.

Wakulla deputies investigating the accident say that the sheriff was at fault in the accident, but that neither alcohol nor excessive speed were involved.

How do they know any of that for sure?

Isn’t that the point of the law requiring drivers in a crash causing damage to stop and stay at the scene to exchange information, including name, address and vehicle registration? A violation is a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

If you are the sheriff, don't you want to wait until deputies show up to investigate, just to remove any possible question of wrongdoing?

Listen, I’m not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination that Harvey was drinking or speeding; I’m simply saying that I’m not sure how deputies would be able to determine anything based on a telephone conversation that far away from the scene with at least one of the vehicles removed from the scene.

And would it have been OK for the other driver to have done the same?

In politics and public life these days, you are guilty in the court of public opinion based on perception and assumption. It has been that way for a long time.

If I had to pin a time when that began to change I would say the 1988 presidential election when front-runner Gary Hart denied having an extramarital affair and challenged reporters:

“Follow me around. I don't care. I'm serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They'll be very bored.”

The Miami Herald did; the newspaper discovered the beautiful 29-year-old Donna Rice, and Hart was shortly out of the race.

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