What erodes our faith in government

Every time I hear about a bunch of people working in concert to do terrible things, I wonder how the idea man pitched it. For instance, how does the plan to haze younger athletic teammates pop up?

Athlete No. 1: "You guys want to hit the movies, and see if we can't meet some chicks?"

Athlete No. 2: "That would be fun . . . or, and I'm just spitballing here, we could chain the freshmen to the floor and violate them. But movies are fun, too. Whatevers."

Last weekend it was reported that all 10 workers on the 11 p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift at the U.S. Postal Service's Hicksville Maintenance Facility will be fired for sleeping on the job. A tipster reported the situation 17 months ago, an investigation was conducted, and the staffers allegedly were photographed sleeping. But how did it all start?

Worker No. 1: "Let's get hopping! We have much to do if we're going to keep these vehicles running safe, as is our legal and moral duty."

Worker No. 2: "Or, and I'm just spitballing here, we could secure the gates with our own chains and locks, cover the windows, set up bedrolls, put out a baby monitor to alert us if anyone's coming, and sleep our shifts away. But doing our jobs is fine, too. Whatevers."

Doesn't anybody worry that his buddies on the team will say, "Dude, why would we torture our teammates, you sick @#$%," and then do some serious shunning?

Doesn't anybody fear co-workers will say, "Why would I sleep through my shift, risk a great job, steal my pay and endanger co-workers by refusing to maintain their work vehicles and lying about it, you thieving louse?"

I get a lot of emails from people arguing that government is all a scam, nothing but waste, fraud and abuse perpetrated on a helpless public. Mostly, that's not what I experience.

A lot of government workers bust their humps to keep our streets drivable, our parks clean, our driver's license pictures horrifyingly ugly and our crime under control. I mostly get this in my heart. But then I hear stories like the alleged long-running slumber party at the Hicksville Maintenance Facility and the cynical troll living in the rear of my brain starts ranting: "YOU CAN HAVE MY TAX PAYMENT WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS, GOVERNMENT VULTURES!"

And while such behavior may not be as widespread as we fear, it's also not as isolated as we would wish. A story by the Albany Times Union last week said New York public workers stole $30 million in the past three years.

Examples include a billing clerk for Rensselaer County who stuffed $800 in her purse about once a week for more than five years. She started doing it to give her kids a nice Christmas, then just kept on, taking almost $209,000. In Suffolk County, an Old Field village treasurer took $60,000 to pay for her divorce and online shopping. And a fire department president in Hudson who embezzled $34,000 sticks out because he spent $4,100 on pornography. People still pay for pornography?

Some folks will steal. It's frustrating, but we see it in every part of public and private life.

But what sticks out in a lot of these cases was the lack of supervision and accountability. Thefts and laziness went undetected for far too long.

I'm just spitballing here, but if managers and department heads and honchos got canned, instead of just the peons, which is how it always seems to work, maybe things would change. Or we can just keep doing it this way, eroding the trust and increasing the cynicism and apathy of taxpayers.

Whatevers.

Lane Filler is a member of the Newsday editorial board.