Now that all four former high-ranking Buncombe County officials are officially jailbirds, it's time for some reflection.

Being a journalist who's been with the paper for nearly 25 years, I've thought long and hard about this saga and what lessons can be gleaned from it.

To recap, former County Manager Wanda Greene, former Assistant County Manager Jon Creighton, former Assistant County Manager and then County Manager Mandy Stone, and former Business Intelligence Manager Michael Greene (who is Wanda Greene's son), have all reported to federal prisons to serve their sentences.

Wanda Greene is serving 7 years in a Texas medical center and prison, while Creighton (18 months) and Michael Greene (6 months) are both in a federal pen in McCreary, Kentucky. Stone, who received 33 months, is being held at a minimum-security camp in Alderson, West Virginia.

The crimes included free trips provided by a contractor, Joe Wiseman, who was then billing back the county for the expenses, as well as questionable life insurance policies for various county officials Wanda Greene secured, abuses of purchase cards and other misuse of county taxpayer funds. In short, the scams went on for years and cost the county millions of dollars, much of which has been recouped but some of which will not be.

The breach of trust will never be repaired.

As these cases unfolded, the depth, duration and scope of the wrongdoing boggled my mind, and I'm sure a lot of Buncombe County residents. In reflecting back on this, some lessons jump to my mind:

Real audits are needed — I've written before in my Answer Man column about how Buncombe County government got clean audits year in and year out while all the abuse and theft was ongoing, but this still seems crazy. So, in general, counties get clean audits, as these are really sort of perfunctory calculations matching income and expenses.

More:Boyle column: In Wanda Greene scandal, should we have uncovered more?

But it also seems clear that on occasion, counties should engage in a more in-depth audit, if not a full-blown forensic one. These rubber stamp audits, which can easily exceed $100,000 a year, seem pretty useless.

Long tenures put watchdogs to sleep — Here's a double-edged sword: The longer an official or politician stays in office, the more expertise he or she amasses, and that, theoretically, at least, helps the organization run a tighter, more efficient ship.

Wanda Greene reports to federal medical prison in Texas

But it also leads to what I view as "the slide into royalty." By this I mean that the official, especially in this case, Wanda Greene, amasses so much power and authority that she has no real checks and balances, and no one questions her methods.

In her case, commissioners and yes, the media, allowed her to trample people, go unquestioned on basics such as line-item budgets presented well in advance or providing detailed answers to questions about spending.

Creighton and Stone also spent decades working for the county, and while not as imperious, they weren't terribly forthright, either.

Honestly, the longer someone is in office, the less you should trust them, especially as a reporter. Longtime power brokers amass too much power, and then they get greedy or start to feel entitled and believe they should rule their fiefdom with unquestioned authority.

So this is a reminder to myself that the longer someone is in a position of authority, the more we should question their actions. Periodically, it's smart to revitalize your cynicism.

Read the budget! Nothing is more boring than governmental budgets. But nothing offers more detail — or should — about what's actually going on in a city or county. For years Wanda Greene got away without presenting line-item budgets, or offering them up late in the process, and that is truly astounding.

Look for the White Out — While I mean this in a metaphorical sense, I also mean it quite literally. Greene bamboozled me at one point, to a degree, by providing an invoice for money spent on ridiculous equestrian expenditures by literally using White Out to make a $125,000 disbursal look like a $25,000 expenditure. Honestly, I did not notice the extra space where the "1" should've been until it was pointed out to me.

So, definitely ask for the documents, but also look at them up close. Ask for the originals. Ask for more detail. Ask other people what they think.

In this case, the county commissioners apparently were mostly unaware the county was spending money on rich-man's horse events in Florida at all, and it turned out taxpayers funded more than a half-million in spending.

Fluffing up a resumé is a red flag — In that magnificent 20/20 hindsight, we should've questioned Greene's status as a "doctor," as commissioners sometimes referred to her.

More:Answer Man: Buncombe paid for Greene's Ph.D.? Grove Arcade Urban Trail marker MIA?

Greene maintained for years that she had earned a Ph.D. in business administration, which is fair enough. But it was from Kennedy Western University in Thousand Oaks, California.

Kennedy Western changed names and moved to Wyoming before closing in March 2009 after being denied accreditation. It was a degree of questionable value at best, and we should've dug into that more.

It's all too common for high-profile people to fake resumes or lie about accomplishments or embellish their experience, and it's usually a sign of deeper troubles.

Short meetings? No questions? Red flag! For years, while the Greene Gang was bilking the county, the Board of Commissioners meetings would routinely go off without a hitch. Or few probing questions.

Disagreement was rare, and it was obvious issues were being worked out ahead of time, most likely via phone calls. It seemed too good to be true, and it was. They were coasting, not offering any oversight, and that always seemed suspicious to us.

While one commissioner, Ellen Frost, has been indicted for her role in the horse shenanigans, none of the others have been, so I don't want to suggest they're a bunch of criminals. But they certainly were not asking the right questions or pushing back on Greene on much of anything.

Put the tax promises in writing — Back in 2011, commissioners and other officials promised Buncombe County voters that a quarter-cent sales tax hike would be used on $130 million worth of much-needed construction at A-B Tech — and nothing else.

But over the years, the county took advantage of imprecise ballot language that didn't require the money to be spent that way. The upshot was the county siphoned off more than $15 million to fund its own operations, and none of it was spent on capital projects.

The money went to the county's annual appropriation for college operations and salaries, including for those of Wanda Greene and Jon Creighton. The Board of Commissioners and A-B Tech are still hashing out repayment, which the county absolutely must complete, in my opinion.

Not that politicians will ever get another such referendum passed, but if they ever have the nerve to ask for one again, they better lock down that language.

Always question travel budgets — Over the years, multiple boards around here have gotten into trouble for elaborate trips or fancy meals. Most conduct retreats locally now, but travel always seems to get elected officials and bureaucrats in trouble. I guess they just feel they're entitled to living it up on the taxpayer dime after a few years.

Tight controls need to be in place on the front end, and serious scrutiny on the back end.

In fact, that's pretty good advice for the county in general.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 828-232-5847 or jboyle@citizentimes.com