Another financial scandal involving thousands of dollars has rocked Peoria. Not long ago, officials at WTVP-TV admitted the public television station was missing big dollars. Now the Peoria City/County Health Department has revealed it lost a huge amount of federal dollars.

This writer said months ago the decision by the health board and its executive director to get into the crime-fighting business was wrong. They argued crime was a health issue. What a stretch! So are car and truck crashes and train derailments and drownings. The board and staff have no knowledge, wisdom, experience to cure or even fight violence.

They proved it by accepting $600,000 from the City Council and then sought bids from local agencies. In essence, the city/county folks became a bank. “Come one, come all for some free money,” was the fight crime battle cry. So, the “House of Hope” wound up in the line of one and was handed $368,000 and the admonition of City Council members and City Manager, Patrick Urich, “Go get ’em guys.”

I grew up when there were “houses” making a lot of money in Peoria, but nothing like $368,000 with another $232,000 waiting to be spent. An investigation is underway with the “hope” the money will be found, but one source said the case is “hopeless.”

Like most scandals, there are multiple questions. Did the director of the House of Hope submit a business plan? If so, was it reviewed by the health board and its director? Was anyone at the health board appointed to oversee the expenditure of monies? Did anyone review monthly bank statements and checks? Was a second person required for writing checks? Did the health board hold weekly meeting updates to determine progress and other important information with the agency director?

The Peoria crime fighting slogan adopted by the city and the health board is “Cure Violence.” Perhaps, we should start with “Cure Corruption.”

The first step has started with officials from law enforcement agencies reportedly investigating. The health department has hired an external auditor to serve as Sherlock Holmes to “hopefully” find the missing cash.

There’s a lot of blame to go around. Take your pick. Council members who approved transferring $368,000 to the Peoria health department is available for criticism. Certainly, the unwise decision by the health folks to think they had the wisdom to “cure violence,” is a viable contestant for the blame game.

Illinois has a history of financial scandals. Probably the biggest featured Paul Powell, who was secretary of state from 1965 to 1970. The popular Democrat was famous for corruption and quotes, like, “Eating crow isn’t bad if it’s prepared right,” and “There’s only one thing worse than a defeated politician and that’s a broke one.” Paul Powell did not die broke.

Even at his death, there was deception. His chief assistant, Nicholas Ciaccio told the press he had found Powell’s body. The truth is, Powell died of a heart attack while at the Mayor Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in 1970.

The deception gave Ciaccio time to go to Powell’s Springfield office, a hotel suite, where he started removing incriminating papers and other damaging materials.

Powell made $30,000 a year, but he listed $200,000 as his income on tax returns.

Employees in his office — 2,700 of them — were required to buy tickets to his annual “Garden Party.” He was accused of corruption, but was never convicted. A search of his hotel room uncovered $750,000 cash in shoe boxes and another $50,000 in his Capitol office five blocks away. They also found 49 cases of whiskey, 14 transitor radios and two cases of creamed corn.

Powell had $1 million worth of stock in horse racing tracks probably because he determined the most favorable racing dates as secretary of state. That scandal led to federal prison for former Governor Otto Kerner, at the time, a federal appeals judge.

Powell’s death inspired Chicago folk singer Steve Goodman to write:

Paul Powell got laid to rest in a casket lined with gold,

But his ghost lives on in other thieves or so I’ve been told.

And there’s crooks in every walk of life, and that I know is true.

But the biggest bums are some of the ones we give our power to.

A ‘MOLE’: Dan Bongino is a popular conservative talk show host on Westwood One.

He has a radio audience of close to nine million and a podcast following of an estimated 16 million. He’s written two books and takes pride in mentioning his four-year career as a New York City police investigator and a Secret Service agent for 12 years. His insights as a former member of the Secret Service have been amazingly informative and exclusive.

Unfortunately, local radio stations do not carry his show, so one has to listen to WLS, AM radio 89, out of Chicago from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Bongino has contacts with people in Washington, D.C. His reports are compelling, as they have been with the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

The second attempt in West Palm Beach, Fla., has led Bongino to suggest there’s a “mole” in the Secret Service releasing confidential information. He points out that Secret Service agents receive a daily schedule of public events Trump will follow. However, they also receive a list of “Off the Record” activities, not for public knowledge, such as a round of golf. Bongino wants to know how did accused gunman 58-year-old Ryan Routh know Trump was going to play golf that day and at that time?

Bongino surmises the secret information was leaked by a Secret Service “mole” to sources who seek to kill the former president.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” — Winston Churchill