A new report by New Jersey's State Commission of Investigation exposes a common practice of "official" or "release" time and has rightly made headlines. See here, here, here, here, and here. The practice entails paying public employees to work for their union. Over a five year period, the report found, the Garden State paid more than $30 million for public workers to conduct union business.

In my recent column on Bloomberg, I argue that concern over the pension crisis is causing many people to rethink their deference to police officers. If police unions are scamming the public on this pension issue, then they might be scamming us in other ways, also. Indeed, the peace officers bill of rights, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in the 1970s, has made it almost impossible to get rid of bad police officers.

Regardless of what one might think of the pepper-spray assault on UC-Davis Occupy protesters by a campus cop, read this Atlantic article detailing the utter impossibility of firing a California peace officer thanks to the Peace Officers Bill of Rights. Per the Atlantic:

As the independent investigators noted, they weren't afforded the opportunity to speak with Lt. Pike because, like his boss, he refused to participate in the inquiry, which he could do without being fired. The recommendations of the Reynoso task force and the independent investigators didn't extend to firing or disciplining anyone, for relevant personnel matters were beyond the duties given them. Moreover, their damning findings won't play any role in whether or not Lt. Pike keeps his job, or faces any disciplinary measure at all, which could remain secret.

Thanks to this bill of rights, a police officer can refuse to discuss the incident at issue. The officer can only be fired or disciplined based on the internal affairs investigation. That investigation is secret. And then there is the informal code of silence and more formal union protections.

It's increasingly clear that public-sector unions have put governments in a bind because of their success at garnering unsustainable pension and medical benefits for public employees. The general public seems to understand that message. But the union-reform movement must now deal with the degree to which unions have protected bad apples and stopped reasonable reforms. Here's an article detailing horrific allegations of abuse at the hands of LA County deputies who patrol the jails. In my reporting of jail issues, it's clear that the unions protect even the worst among them. Ironically, the Democrats who claim to be civil libertarians are mostly silent on such matters here in California thanks to their close association with the unions.

Last autumn I wrote about the growing discontent of union households over the high price of membership. A Harris Interactive poll I cited found 47 percent of those in union households saying they didn't believe they were getting their money's worth out of union dues, in part because more and more of the money seemed to be going to political campaigns and advocacy outside of labor rather than to representing workers. Now a former government union official in Michigan, a state where reformers are pushing a so-called 'right to teach' act allowing public school instructors to opt out of the teacher's union, acknowledges as much.