Rule 17 of Warren County politics: Don't like it when something doesn't go your way? Wait a few weeks for the right people to take office and do over.
Warren County Commissioner John Bortz is familiar with the concept, though he might not give it a numerical designation.
As a trustee of the Hoffman Trust, a fortune willed for the benefit of orphans and other neglected children in Warren County, Bortz promised the group hoping to establish a charter school that he would support lending them virtually all of the money in the trust to get the school on its feet financially.
His fellow trustees, commissioners John Eggleston and Terry Hawk, did not feel so inclined and voted against the loan.
No matter, Mr. Bortz says, in a few weeks there will be a new commissioner and trustee who is sure to see it his way, and he, Bortz, will simply bring the matter up again.
Let this be a lesson to those of a philanthropic mind, who consider bequeathing their fortunes for the betterment of there progeny and placing politicians in the position of trustees. Their trust will be administered at the whim of political maneuvering, thus weaving this way and that in perpetuity, unless, of course, the management goes awry and the trust dries up.
When most people borrow a substantial sum of money, the lender requires some form of guarantee of repayment, either in the form of property placed as collateral or a co-signed third party with sufficient resources to cover the debt in the event the primary borrower defaults. In the case of a trust fund that was designated for specific purposes, loans made from the fund should address those purposes.
If Mr. Bortz is convinced that the Hoffman Trust should be lent to the charter school applicants that the loan meets both those criteria.