EDITORIAL NO CONSEQUENCES DISCIPLINE REVERSALS CONFIRM PUBLIC'S FEAR.

HERE'S what generally happens when a private-sector employee commits gross incompetence at work: He or she is fired, given a final paycheck, and goes away. For good.

Here's what happens all too often when a county employee commits gross incompetence at work: He or she is recommended for firing or suspension. Then, after an appeal before the Civil Service Commission, the disciplinary action is overturned and the employee returns to work, incompetence forgotten.

According to a Daily News review, the commission overturned or reduced discipline recommended by various county departments in nearly half of all cases between 2001 and 2004. That's hundreds of people whose bosses consider them incompetent, yet remain on the public payroll.

What is most disturbing is the number of sheriff's deputies whose discipline has been reduced. For example, nearly one-third of the discharges were reversed in 2003. The reversals concern county Inspector General Michael Gennaco, who says it's possible that officers who have abused the public are still on the street.

It should concern the public as well.

Public-employee unions counter that the reductions are appropriate because the system actually over-disciplines employees. That's a laughable claim. It's no secret that government employees are virtually guaranteed to hold on to their jobs unless they commit a major crime. For example, for years many incompetent people held jobs at Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center, helping craft the institution's nickname of Killer King. Clearly, there hasn't been a rash of over-discipline.

This issue goes to the very heart of what's wrong with how bureaucracies are run and why the public is fed up with them -- from school districts to the federal government. Taxpayers aren't getting their money's worth. The figures on discipline reversals just confirm their fear that there are virtually no consequences for incompetence.