City workers who are credibly accused of criminal fraud and stealing are routinely suspended and often fired, just like private sector employees would be if they were accused of the same misconduct.

Councillor Tania Fernandes Anderson, who has been indicted for concocting a kickback scheme to purloin $7,000 from the city coffers that she’s not entitled to, should be no exception. Because her colleagues probably cannot expel her in the near term, the councillor should resign from her seat and allow for a new leader to step in and represent constituents in District 7, which includes sections of Dorchester.

The fact that there’s even a debate about whether or not she should step down is a disheartening testament to the erosion of the public’s trust in elected office-holders writ large. But just because our national political spine may be broken does not mean that Bostonians should settle for anything other than honorable public servants working on our behalf.

Fernandes Anderson’s oversight role in the budgeting and disbursement of city funds, licenses, and other decisions about how public money is spent is far too sensitive to entrust to someone who has been charged with fraud and misuse of those funds. Her colleagues should expect to work alongside a fellow councillor who is focused on delivering for her district, not lining her own pockets and thereby impugning the reputation of the council.

The sum in question – $7,000 in cash payments – is perhaps less troublesome than the hubris on display in this councillor’s behavior. Having already been caught and fined for employing her sister and son on her office payroll, Fernandes Anderson’s scheme as alleged in the court documents made public last week once again involved hiring a relative, though more distant, and lying about that to other city officials. It was the act of someone who was apparently desperate for money, which is never a good look for someone entrusted with our taxpayer dollars. But it’s symptomatic of someone who is utterly disdainful of the norms of good government in our city.

Those who protest that Fernandes Anderson is somehow being singled out should hit pause and reflect on previous crimes in City Hall that have been exposed and punished. A former senior BPDA manager from Dorchester, John Lynch, was charged with bribery and fraud for accepting $50,000 from a developer to influence a Zoning Board decision in 2017. He was fired and eventually convicted and jailed for the offense. The late Councillor Chuck Turner was sentenced to three years in prison for accepting $1,000 from a federal informant in 2008. Turner was expelled from the council by his colleagues before his conviction, a move that the state’s Supreme Judicial Court later ruled was improper since he had not yet been found guilty.

Fernandes Anderson has not been proven guilty, either. Other than offering a plea of “not guilty” last week in federal court, she has not addressed the allegations laid out in great detail by prosecutors. That is her right as a citizen.

But elected officials should hold themselves to a higher standard and so should we. They’ve been entrusted with our money and the expectation that they will make ethical and transparent decisions on how to spend it. In the case of this councillor, it appears that that trust was misplaced.

District 7 and, in fact, all Bostonians deserve an honest broker in the halls of power at Government Center. We hope that Councillor Fernandes Anderson will step aside and allow for that transition to begin.

-Bill Forry