Last year I wrote about concerns over a U.S. Senate bill (S3194) that would have overruled North Carolina’s law that prohibits public sector collective bargaining, giving public safety employees the right to collectively bargain with local governments. If enacted, the bill would have given taxpayers a serious kick in the pants.

S. 3194 is an expensive, unfunded mandate, according to Ellis Hankins of the League of Municipalities. “It’s going to result in the same services being delivered at a much higher cost,” Hankins said. Like the county commissioners’ group, the league views collective bargaining and S. 3194 as a major threat that would create an adversarial relationship between employee and employer and lead to collective bargaining with other public employees.

Fast forward to today’s Cary News story about the N.C. Police Benovelent Association’s apparent pressure on Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht to meet with the group and bring forward its concerns and issues to the full council. The mayor is rightly steering clear of this.

Disagreement over the policy has tinged Weinbrecht’s relationship with the local and state chapters of the Police Benevolent Association, which says it represents the interests of a majority of Cary police officers.

“They basically told me that it’s time to start representing their interest or they’re not interested in supporting me in future elections,” said Weinbrecht, who wrote last week about the issue on his blog.

Midgette said the group hadn’t made so direct a threat. But he said Weinbrecht’s refusal to bring the group’s concerns to council hurts his chances at winning an endorsement from the PBA.