The latest installment of the ongoing “How to Sock It to Ohio Taxpayers” saga comes to us straight from the chief executive’s office in Youngstown City Hall. There, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown accepted the resignation / retirement of police Chief Carl Davis on May 5. Two days later, he rehired him for the same job.

“It’s retire-rehire,” Davis said. “I’m extremely grateful the mayor allowed me to continue serving the people of Youngstown as police chief.”

To be sure, Davis has been an asset and has served the city well with 37 years on the force and 2 1/2 years as chief. Under his watch, the sagging ranks of the police force have been strengthened and the rising tide of violent crime — particularly homicides — have dropped markedly.

In this matter, Davis and the city’s elected leaders have not served the taxpayers of Youngstown and Ohio well at all. Davis and thousands of other public employees in the state reap rewards of a generous salary and a princely pension at the expense of lowly taxpayers.

In Davis’ case, the immediate benefits translate to $98,530 in annual salary and about $65,000 in pension. And according to a benefit calculator on the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund’s website, his Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP, would amount to about $400,000. On top of that, thanks to financially unsound city policies, Davis also will rake in more than $44,000 in a severance package in his so-called “retirement.”

Sadly, such astronomical payouts appear to be the rule, not the exception, among upper echelon public employees in Ohio.

Given state law permits lavish enrichment for relatively young retirees, who can blame Davis for grabbing the brass ring? The true culprit in this longstanding misguided policy lies in state law and pension fund rules that permit such pillaging of taxpayers.

As for the DROP program, it amounts to little more than “government-sanctioned double dipping,” according to the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, an independent research and educational think tank based in Columbus.

The institute notes police and firefighters become eligible when they are as young as 48 and have at least 25 years of experience. Instead of retiring, they commit to continue working three to eight more years.

The benefit of DROP is that even as participants continue to work, the pension fund begins making their pension payments, depositing them in an account that automatically earns interest each year and a cost-of-living allowance to the point where it’s not unusual for some high-ranking officers to receive more than $1 million in lump-sum DROP payments when they finally do retire for good, the institute noted.

Contrast such gold-plated perks with those of the average private-sector retiree. First, the company worker must wait generally until age 65 or older to qualify for full Social Security retirement benefits or, if he or she is lucky, for a private pension to kick in. The thought of collecting a paycheck and pension payments simultaneously is nothing more than a pipe dream to many in the private sector.

Of course, public safety forces, local and state government workers and educators are quick to defend the practice. In some cases, the salaries of double dippers are reduced — usually ever so slightly — once the pension perks roll in, creating the appearance that taxpayers are saving money. They also will argue that retaining the experience and expertise of seasoned public employees is priceless. But as more and more of Ohio’s 400,000 public employees opt for retire-rehire, more and more young and well-trained individuals will be blocked from deserved promotions and even from the entrance door to satisfying employment.

Clearly, it’s long past time for Ohio pension systems and state statutes governing them to rein in such lavish extravagance. They could start by raising retirement ages to those at least within the ballpark of the private sector.

They also could lay down more stringent requirements and less attractive benefits, including no additional earned pension benefits while working after retirement.

As state legislators are public workers themselves, it’s not hard to see why action on leveling the playing field between private- and public-sector employees and retirees has not been a hot-button priority. In the narrow interest of pension-fund stability and in the wide interest of fairness to Ohio’s working men and women in all sectors, state law governing retire-rehire requires a major shakedown. Here’s hoping someone in the Legislature will have the will and the guts to rise to that challenge.