Peter (Agostino) The Great: Kleptocrat of Michiana

Peter (Agostino) The Great: Kleptocrat of Michiana

by Rexworth E.F. Washington Hundreds of people came to the “Emergency Meeting” called by the South Bend School Board earlier this evening; however, the meeting was postponed or effectively cancelled and rescheduled within the first minute of the meeting. 

WNDU reported that school board members could not speak to the issues because of ‘legal reasons,’ but this is untrue. Board members can do whatever they like on these issues as they are the elected officials. If their lawyer, Peter Agostino, is actually running the show for them, the County, and Common Council member Sharon McBride (and others), then we are left to ask the question: who the heck elected Peter Agostino? His name was not on any ballots, but he now represents the County, the South Bend School Board, and at least one member of the Common Council. Agostino is the most influential person in the entire community, and not a single person voted for him, making him not accountable to anyone, but certainly someone who has numerous conflicts between these groups. 

Community members grow increasingly frustrated with unelected lawyers such as the South Bend Common Council's Bob Palmer and now Agostino interpreting the law.  Lawyers are paid by the hour, so promoting transparency or clear processes is not in their economic interest. The American Bar Association asserts that lawyers are to act with expediency to resolve issues. Still, there is no way to prove that this is not the case in most instances – so the public is to believe that lawyers following their own code of ethics are acting appropriately; however, we need to look no further than a common google search for lawyer jokes to see how corrupt we all know them to be.

The time for tolerance for governmental foot dragging and semi-legal dodging of the public is waning. 

Tonight’s essential cancellation of a public meeting (by tabling the only agenda item on an emergency meeting) seems at first blush to be a clear violation of the Indiana Open Door policies and laws. However, it’s also a tremendous waste of time of the hundreds of people who came to be heard and takes yet another chink out of most minor beliefs that the people hold that their government is operational. 

We have no representative government as long as officials listen to lawyers instead of representing the public. 

Peter Agostino is part of the problem and offers no solutions, but he bills at a significant rate for his unelected nonsense. For the betterment of the public good, he must be dismissed by two of the three government entities he represents, or better still, he could show some standards and recuse himself. Should he not do this, we need citizens to stand up and demand he either resign or be removed from those agencies. We cannot allow Peter the great kleptocrat to rule our community with no transparency and by stomping on regular people’s rights to be heard.

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