It is comforting to see when the Secretary of Health and Welfare can blow $1 million of taxpayer money on his private jet excursions. It helps us understand the attitude of CMEEC officers who felt entitled to dip into public money for their sojourn to blue grass country. No agenda, no minutes, no accountability. We don't even know who won at the races. It is all about the entitlement culture. If you do what you’re supposed to do then you are entitled to take.

Who sees to it that we are protected from this misappropriation of public funds? Misappropriations can be defined as taking something such as money for your own use wrongly. Ethics has nothing to do with the taking. The owning municipalities have not hired any law firm to render an opinion whether the trips and expenditures were in fact misappropriations of public funds. Has any town counsel rendered an opinion as to the legality and whether there was a misuse? If there was such misuse then the creators and takers should be obligated to pay back. Is there no state agency that prevents such conduct? Does the state's attorney get involved? Does anyone care? Guess not.

Martin Rutchik

Norwich