Protecting the public trust means keeping your hand out of the till, but to paraphrase the great Oscar Wilde, the only thing some elected and appointed officials cannot resist is temptation.

The latest to face scrutiny is Ronald Snow, a former Norway selectman, who was charged Monday with theft, accused of taking funds from the town’s public television station.

Norway, last year, was the site of a similiar, more scandalous case; the town’s former economic development director, Deb Wyman, developed her personal economy with $117,000 in misappropriated town funds. She is serving two years, of an eight-year sentence, in prison.

The list of convicted local embezzlers, like Wyman, is long and varied; it includes athletic directors, town managers, clerks, bookkeepers, ambulance employees and the past president of Rumford’s Moontide festival.

These different jobs have a disturbing commonality: full control, by a single person, over public money with little oversight. This is the breeding ground for betrayal, as the lure of copious, accessible funds can make even the most honorable person turn dishonest.

Cynics would say this is human nature; we disagree, as municipal financial malfeasance in our corner of Maine, and elsewhere across the state, has also been enabled by loopholes prevalent in the small-town government.

The state auditor, former state Sen. Neria Douglass of Auburn, has seen it. Her office participates in auditing investigations in towns to find malfeasance, and hears complaints from residents and public officials about quirks in behavior – or accounting – that could signal funds are being diverted.

She sees some common red flags: fluctuations in excise tax revenues, with cash payments unrecorded; policies asking residents to make out checks for town payments to a person, like a town treasurer, not the town; and, of course, the limited oversight of funds that can make money go missing.

“I think the best thing (residents) can do is ask questions,” said Douglass about municipal financial misgivings. Her office doesn’t conduct intensive forensic audits due to staff cutbacks, but Douglass keeps a three-ring binder of complaints to her office and criminal cases, which she says are increasing.

It’s inarguable the financial practices of publicly funded entities, such as municipalities, deserve stringent review and tightening where necessary.

Embezzlement literally costs taxpayers millions – some $4.2 million was taken from Maine cities and towns from 1994 to 2005, according to Maine Municipal Association data cited by the Bangor Daily News on Monday.

Opportunity or desperation may start embezzlement, but financial systems fraught with poor oversight make it continue. Resisting the initial temptation to take, however, should be possible.

As long as stealing doesn’t remain such a steal.