Of the many reasons to be outraged over the Cayuga County government's asbestos scandal, one of the most glaring has to be the handling of John Chick's employment status.

Chick, a longtime county maintenance worker, is the only person in this matter who has been indicted so far. He's also the only person who has pleaded guilty to any crimes.

Yet he has been allowed to remain on the payroll, suspended with pay since roughly the beginning of this year.

County officials have deflected criticism, saying their hands have been tied by civil service and contract rules. Those rules give Chick due process rights before he can be terminated, but it's ridiculous that his civil service case has been dragged out this long. The biggest excuse has been schedule conflicts, which is a farce. It should not be this difficult to get the handful of people involved in this matter into a room at the same time.

The rules also limit the number of days Chick could be suspended without pay to 30, a window that shut a long time ago.

We're not opposed to a civil service process for handling terminations of county workers. In the world of politics, such protections are important safeguards to ensure a stable work environment.

But this case clearly illustrates the system in place is broken, if you believe county officials' word that they've done all they can to fire Chick quickly.

Here's the bottom line: John Chick admitted in federal court to committing a felony, the illegal removal of asbestos.

He admitted that this crime took place on the job, acting in his official capacity.

And me made this admission in January.

But he's been collecting his taxpayer-funded paycheck nonetheless.

Every legislator in this county should share the outrage with county taxpayers at this injustice, and they should start being pro-active to get the situation resolved, both in this particular case and in a system that's ripe for abuse in the future.