The president of Santa Ana’s police union, Gerry Serrano, is one of the city’s highest-paid employees even though he does no police work for the city.

Yet his nearly $500,000 in compensation isn’t enough for him. Public records show that he received help at the state’s highest levels in an attempt to boost his pension by as much as $60,000 a year.

These revelations are the latest chapter in a complex and revealing local story — one that highlights how police unions across California misuse tax dollars at the expense of the public and use campaign contributions to advance personal agendas rather than genuine law-enforcement priorities.

Santa Ana residents have long known about its police union’s strong-arm tactics, which include nasty public spats with the police chief and recalls that target council members who resist its demands. But its tactics clearly weren’t confined to Santa Ana.

The Anaheim Investigator obtained emails showing that state Treasurer Fiona Ma’s top staff advanced special legislative language designed to help Serrano. Although the effort ultimately failed, it would have allowed Serrano to receive pension credit for part of his non-pensionable bonus pay.

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California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) officials were part of the effort in a clear case of foxes guarding the henhouse. Ma eventually received $15,900 in campaign contributions for her re-election bid from the union’s independent expenditure committee — making the relatively small Santa Ana POA one of her largest contributors that period.

Serrano had turned his attention to Sacramento after he failed locally. In response to the city’s resistance, Serrano “filed a barrage of disputed legal claims accusing city leaders of wrongdoing, threatened to ‘make disclosures that will hurt people,’ and also asked elected officials to pressure the city manager,” according to a VoiceofOC report.

The fracas also highlights Santa Ana’s absurd police labor contract, which pays a union president CEO-level pay to work full-time on the union’s business.

The situation does need a state legislative solution: Lawmakers should forbid taxpayers from footing the bill for anyone who works for a union rather than the public.