By Dean Maddox, Public Safety & Crime Reporter

California’s political class likes to grandstand about transparency and accountability while in reality they’re cutting backroom deals and cashing checks from the same people they’re supposed to regulate.

Last year, Gavin Newsom proclaimed, “we must all stand up and be held to a higher level of accountability.” In the real world, Newsom’s own chief of staff has been charged with corruption. Over the last decade, over 500 officials have been tried or convicted of corruption, and it’s still legal for them to lobby.

Now, one legislator is trying to fix it. Central Valley Assemblyman David Tangipa has introduced Assembly Bill 1560. The bill simply says that if you are convicted of corruption, you should not be in a position to influence government decisions. That basic idea should not be controversial and in any normal state everyone would agree. But California’s not a normal state.

Insiders protect insiders. The same people cycling through government offices, lobbying firms, and political campaigns act shocked when one of their own gets caught. Then they move on like nothing happened. It is a little club, and you and me ain’t in it.

Regular Californians feel the consequences every day. We pay some of the highest taxes in the nation, deal with some of the worst bureaucracies, and watch government policy twist itself into knots to serve special interests. When corrupt officials can keep operating in plain sight, it destroys any expectation that the system works for the people.

The truth is simple. A government that is not willing to police its own corruption is a government that cannot be trusted. Sacramento has gotten used to letting things slide. Maybe it is time that changed.