But instead of taking a muted approach in response — or attempting to work out some reforms behind the scenes — the California Correctional Peace Officers Association is gearing up for war, admitting nothing and saying the improprieties were on the part of investigators, not guards.

This is from Associated Press:

Inspector General Robert Barton said the California Correctional Peace Officers Association advised members not to cooperate and filed a lawsuit and collective bargaining grievance in a bid to hinder the investigation.

 

The union sent a letter last month to Gov. Jerry Brown and every state lawmaker in what Barton called “the latest strong-arm tactic” to obstruct the investigation and discredit the inspector general before the report was released.

 

Union President Chuck Alexander’s letter to Brown accuses Barton of taking a prosecutorial “burn a cop a week” approach to overseeing the corrections department. Union spokeswoman Nichol Gomez-Pryde said the union’s only interest is in protecting its members’ legal rights.

 

The report came more than a decade after the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation tried to stamp out a culture in which prison guards protect one another when they witness wrongdoing.

CCPOA’s hardball tactics reminiscent of Gray Davis era

The stance taken by the CCPOA was remindful of its tactics and attitude during Gray Davis’ nearly five-year run as governor. The prison guards union won a 2002 contract that not only provided big raises — 37 percent over five years for many union members — it also gave union officials a say in management. At a remarkable July 2003 Sacramento hearing, lawmakers heard testimony about how this made it difficult to prevent, much less punish, outrageous guard behavior similar to what’s being alleged at the High Desert prison. The San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time:

On Thursday, eight witnesses shared their versions of a controversy that began at the California Institution for Men in Chino (San Bernardino County) on May 9, 2002. In an alleged incident that included as many as 20 guards, some participating and some watching, five prisoners whose hands and feet were bound were slammed to the ground, beaten and kicked.

 

Internal affairs agents for the corrections system launched a criminal investigation, according to Special Agent Richard Feaster. A recording of an informant provided especially damning evidence, agents said Thursday. … But the probe quickly ran into trouble.

 

Using a clause in their contract with the state, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association began demanding that agents share the evidence being amassed against guards. Agents were concerned that the case would be compromised if union officials learned who key witnesses were.

 

The contract the CCPOA signed with Davis …  includes many … provisions, including allowing guards to obtain information being collected against them.

Schwarzenegger demanded, won concessions

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who succeeded Davis in the fall 2003 recall, fought the CCPOA tooth and nail and won back some of the concessions that Davis had made. This led the union to consider mounting a recall attempt against Schwarzenegger in 2007, but it eventually gave up.

In 2010, the CCPOA endorsed Jerry Brown for governor and was rewarded with a 2011 contract that prompted complaints from a Long Beach Press-Telegram editorial:

Brown’s deal reverses some reforms that were made under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, such as the requirement that guards meet physical fitness standards and that allows managers to take action against sick time abuse. To top it off, the deal includes a pay increase.

The recent state inspector general’s report came shortly after Jeffrey Beard announced he was resigning Jan. 1 as secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The former Pennsylvania prison official was brought in by Brown three years ago to shake up a dysfunctional culture, and he got high marks from the governor.

But Beard’s departure won’t be tidy, coming against a backdrop of the ugly fight playing out at the High Desert prison. Brown — like Davis, his former chief of staff — and his next prison boss will have to figure out how to treat a union that resists boundaries on its behavior.

Katy Grimes: The phony green jobs that I have been writing about for several years are just another inconvenient truth in this administration.

The U.S. Labor Department’s Inspector General just released a report on Friday revealing that President Obama’s green jobs training program went up in smoke.

Bad news from the government always is released on Friday.

In addition to a failed stimulus program, the Obama green jobs program wasted another $500 million dollars from taxpayers.

The report found:

In the three and a half years since the stimulus bill was signed, the green jobs program has only placed 11,613 individuals into jobs that have been retained for more than 6 months. That’s only 16 percent of the total goal.

Only 30,857, or 38 percent, were placed into any green jobs at all.

Even with these damning numbers, the Labor Department put out its own statement disagreeing with the Inspector General: “This report does not take into account that nearly half of the grants are still active and thousands of workers are still participating in the program,” a statement said.

The Obama administration’s plan was to create 700,000 green jobs in clean tech energy.

The bad news

According to the newly released report requested by Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan, the report revealed that the Department of Labor has further squandered taxpayer money since the program was flagged by the IG last year.

“The green jobs training program belongs in the long list of the Administration’s bad investments including the bankruptcies of Solyndra, Beacon Power, Abound, and just this month, A123,” said Issa. “Not only was the program poorly thought-out, mismanaged and dysfunctional, but it served as a slush fund to reward friends of the Obama Administration. Millions of dollars went to groups like the National Council of La Raza, the Blue Green Alliance and the US Steelworkers union,” Issa stated.

Here is the Congressional hearing where Issa learned what a green job really is:

Worse news

DOL trained more criminals than veterans: 9 percent of the people who received training (about 10,000 individuals) had criminal records, while 7 percent were veterans.

Poor results: Out of a target of 81,254, grantees collectively reported 30,857 participants (38 percent) entered employment

Of the 81,354 participants who completed training, 42,322 (52 percent) already had jobs.

Of the 81,354 participants who completed training through the Green Jobs program, 38,366 received 5 days or less of training, of which 17,374 received only 1 day of training.

According to the Inspector General, “Grantees were authorized to train incumbent workers who needed training to secure full-time employment, advance their careers, or retain their current jobs. However, for the 81 incumbent workers we identified in our sample, we found no evidence that they needed green job training for any of these purposes.”

“The sampled grantees were unable to provide documentation for 24 percent of sampled participants reported as entered employment,” The IG reported. “Moreover, they could not provide documentation for 33 percent of sampled participants reported as entering training-related employment and 44 percent of sampled participants tested for retention.”

I really hate to say “I told ya so,” so instead I”ll just ask all of you greenies how it feels to have so much smoke blown up your skirts?

The Inspector General’s report is HERE.