Politician perp walks are an all-too-common sight in Massachusetts. Tania Fernandes Anderson must be the last official to make one.

The embattled City Councilor has signed a plea deal in a federal corruption case tied to allegations that she stole thousands of dollars from taxpayers in a kickback scheme, according to a filing made Tuesday in federal court.

It’s not her first time at the rodeo.

In 2023, Fernandes Anderson admitted to violating the state’s conflict of interest law by hiring her sister and son to paid positions on her staff, and agreed to pay a $5,000 fine. She also chose to increase their salaries, and in the case of her sister, award a $7,000 bonus.

But the District 7 councilor has plenty of company in the rogues’ gallery of Massachusetts pols who’ve been on the business end of an indictment.

We’ve had three consecutive Speakers of the House pull off a hat trick of criminal convictions: Charles Flaherty (1991-1996) on tax evasion; Thomas M. Finneran (1996-2004) for perjury; and Sal DiMasi (2004-2009) for extortion.

City Hall has been playing catch-up. Former City Councilor Chuck Turner was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to three years in jail for pocketing a $1,000 bribe from an informant who claimed to be seeking a liquor license. Former Massachusetts state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson will always be remembered for the photo in which she was caught stuffing a $1,000 wad of cash into her bra in a Beacon Hill restaurant.

Across the river, Cambridge City Councilor Paul Toner was charged earlier this year with buying sex through a busted brothel ring. And …

The list of our state’s perfidious pols goes on, and it’s not much of a shock to see a local or state official exit a courthouse, grim-faced and silent, as their lawyer volleys questions.

But it should be.

Voters put their candidates in office in the hope and belief that they, as public servants, will work for the people, solve problems, improve the city or state, and make Massachusetts a little better for them having held office.

We’re not looking to elect saints, but our representatives should at the very least be of upstanding character.

And when they aren’t, there should be a penalty for breaking the trust of voters.

While convicted pols face prison time and/or fines and retribution for their crimes, their betrayal of those who put them in office gets lost in the fray.

There needs to be a substantial fine, made to the city or state, for abusing their office. It should be large enough to make a public servant think twice about doing something shady for private gain.

The money would go to food banks, health organizations, or help constituents pay for electricity or heat or whatever else they are lacking. This is, after all, what the pols should have been focusing on while in office: addressing the problems of voters.

Misbehaving pols distract from the people’s business. The cost of investigation and prosecution, and the fallout on districts, cities and the state as cases wind through the court is untenable.

The ill-gotten buck stops here.

Editorial cartoon by Gary Varvel (Creators Syndicate)