Last year was a rough one when it came to ethics in Prince George’s County. After all, whenever the year is capped with the arrest of the County executive and his wife which led to several indictments on bribery and conspiracy charges, there are obviously some issues at play. If only there had been some kind of organization tasked with keeping ethical violations in the County in check!

Well, there is, reports Alex Pappas — but they just never met last year. During an oversight hearing yesterday, the board’s leadership claimed that they didn’t receive any complaints about corruption in the county during the year — strange, considering that a years-long FBI probe was about to blow up, but okay — and that they have no way to actually receive anonymous complains which might have prompted such an investigation.

Of course, when one considers that the board has no budget, no full-time members and can’t subpoena anyone while enforcing a ethics guidebook which has more holes in it than a fine piece of Swiss, well it’s hard to blame the board too much.