It’s been a week since federal prosecutors announced indictments against 16 people involved in the Dallas City Hall corruption scandal.

The indictments themselves weren’t a surprise. The FBI investigation began more than two years ago. But who was indicted says a lot about what is wrong with our civic leadership in the area.

State Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas; James Fantroy, former City Council member and mayoral candidate Don Hill and former Plan Commissioner D’Angelo Lee are the most notable names among elected officials.

The crux of the charges is that public officials in Dallas government were paid off to help a developer, Brian Potashnik, win low-income housing contracts.

The specific charges – bribery, extortion, money laundering and tax evasion among others – make us wonder how deep rooted the problems are at City Hall.

What type of environment existed where this was ok? How could elected officials go along with what was happening?

It would be easy to fall back on tired race-based analysis of the indictments. Twelve of the 16 indicted, including all of the public officials, are black.

But to do so would miss the point of why these indictments were handed down.

We need for our leaders to be held accountable – no matter what their race or ethnicity is.

While the courts will work out the details of what happened in the past at City Hall, the current city council and Mayor Tom Leppert need to get to work and make sure a culture of accountability is installed.

The city temporarily suspended applications for low-income housing projects, but they are once again taking and approving new applications.

Dallas should install another moratorium until new procedures are created to ensure board members or city council members can manipulate the process to their advantage.

The analysis shouldn’t stop there.

Mayor Leppert should take a look at all similar processes in city government. This current group of council members owes it to the city to make sure City Hall can be trusted.