N.J. probe finds waste, abuse in municipal benefits

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

New Jersey residents seeking jobs with cushy benefits, such as paid time off for Christmas shopping, payouts for unused sick days, and no-strings-attached departure bonuses, might want to drop off a resume at their local town hall.

A report released yesterday by the state Commission of Investigation, an independent fact-finding agency, found those and many other examples of what it called waste and abuse in a review of 75 municipalities and quasi-independent authorities.

Eighty percent of the employers investigated by the commission provided questionable benefits to police, fire, or civilian personnel, the commission found.

Several pages of the report are devoted to Camden, the state's poorest city and the recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars of state aid, which allegedly allowed improper retirement payouts and days off.