As more and more dirt continues to be unearthed from the financial mess that’s been buried at the city’s cemetery for years, some light has been shed into the inner workings of our local government.

Just as the public already knew, it can be inefficient at times. But what we’ve also learned from the Woodlawn Cemetery debacle is that Santa Monica government can be ineffective, costly and unaccountable.

After three audits, two of which were conducted by outside firms paid for by Santa Monica taxpayers that went well into the tens of thousands of dollars, we have learned that there is money missing from the cemetery — but we still don’t know how much and probably never will.

Michael Steen, the former director of Woodlawn and person in charge of handling the cemetery’s revenue, was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, but was still fired last September after three investigations showed that he failed to keep accurate books.

His bosses at City Hall now say that they believe the missing money is due to his incompetence as a manager, despite the fact they continued to give him favorable reviews and bonuses over the course of his 15-year tenure at Woodlawn.

Because the matter was a personnel issue, the public gleaned little information of how bad it really got at the city operated cemetery. Only in recent months, during open personnel board hearings, has it become clear that managers at City Hall looked the other way when Steen’s job performance was called into question.

According to Steen’s attorney, William Becker, City Hall should have done more to address issues it had with Steen’s management of the cemetery. Instead, City Hall set up false expectations by giving Steen excellent performance reviews up to the time of his dismissal.

Steen, who took over as Woodlawn’s top administrator in 1989, received only one less-than-satisfactory performance review during his reign. That was in 1991, when he was first criticized for his messy desk and lack of organization. Otherwise, Steen’s performance reviews were very favorable over the years, taking particular note of his communication skills.

The mismanagement of finances first came up during an audit for the 2001-02 fiscal year. In light of the audit, City Hall managers issued a corrective action plan to address the lack of internal controls that the audit pointed out.

The evaluation, generally favorable, indicated that as a manager, Steen was responsible for ensuring that internal financial controls were in place. Since they had not been in place at the time of the audit, Steen didn’t receive a bonus.

Steen appealed the evaluation. The appeal required City Hall to bolster Steen’s performance review. Otherwise, City Hall’s position was upheld, according to testimony.

Now Steen is appealing his termination, hoping to be compensated by City Hall and to clear his name.

The problem with that is he didn’t do his job, which as a public employee means protecting the taxpayers’ money. And the fact that his managers knew he was doing a poor job and did nothing about it means they failed the taxpayers too. And that is what’s criminal.