From our Essex County neighbor Marblehead comes a story of a public official who understands the meaning of ethics.
Wayne Butler, chairman of the Marblehead Historical Commission, refused to participate in the charade that is the state's new "ethics test."
This is the test no one can fail — you take it online, and can keep clicking on responses to the multiple-choice queries until you get the right one. When you're satisfied with the result you print it out and deliver it to your city or town clerk or some other appropriate authority as evidence that you have indeed participated.
The test is the brainchild of the Legislature whose lapses — three House speakers in a row indicted, three senators forced to resign in the past couple of years — have given voters good reason to question the ethical standards that prevail on Beacon Hill.
So why not make everyone take a test, one that even legislators themselves must pass?
Well, what good is a test that no one can fail?
Butler, who serves without pay or promise of a lucrative pension, took umbrage, particularly with the provision in the law that makes anyone failing to turn in the proper paperwork subject to a $10,000 fine.
So after eight years on the board during which he took a lead role cataloging and preserving historic documents and artifacts in the town's possession, Butler quit.
He doesn't question the need to have honest people in public office, whether they are elected or appointed. Someone in his position, for example, has access to some valuable items that might tempt the less trustworthy.
But this test does nothing to separate the virtuous from the unscrupulous. And as painful as it was for both himself and the town for Butler to give up the post, his action makes that point loud and clear.
Butler refused to participate in a sham. That's a lesson in ethics legislators should take to heart.
