Tuesday, April 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
A year after Clark County auditors cautioned commissioners about rising cellular phone costs, the number of county employees hooked to the "gray leash" has increased along with the size of the bills.
Almost 100 cellular phones have been issued since that report was presented last April, bringing the total number in use to 536. Sprint cellular bills have gone up along with the new phones, from $296,000 last year to a projected $350,000 for the current fiscal year ending June 30.
By comparison, the city of Las Vegas spent $78,834 on cellular phones last year and estimates spending $92,000 on 143 phones for the current year.
"It might be necessary to evaluate who has cellular phones and see if they are really needed," commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates said after learning how much cellular phone use has increased. "We need to see if the appropriate people have cellular phones."
County Manager Pat Shalmy determines who gets cellular phones based on the request and documentation explaining why the phones are needed. Shalmy said he grants the requests if it can be shown to improve efficiency.
"Most of the time they are needed, the documents show service is improved by use of the phones," Shalmy said.
County commissioners get cellular phones as a matter of course. For several, such as Gates, Jay Bingham and Erin Kenny, the phone is a lifeline to the office, constituents and county officials. Not surprisingly, their bills are the three highest among commissioners.
"It's a worthwhile expense in order to keep in constant communications with the office," said Kenny, whose bills are the ninth highest in the county at an average of $217 a month.
Bingham, the fourth-highest cellular user with bills averaging more than $280 a month, said he writes a check to the county for $100 each month for personal calls. Gates, whose bills run about $180 a month, said she gives the county back about $50 a month for personal calls.
Assistant County Manager Jim Ley, whose bills are the eighth highest in the county at an average of $225 per month, said cellulars are a "good time-management tool," especially for people like him who have to travel around the county to various projects and development sites.
But most people assigned cellular phones are not always happy to have them, General Services Director Earl Hawkes said.
"You're stuck to it," Hawkes said. "If you talk to people, they say it helps them perform their job, but they're not overwhelmingly happy to have one because it is the gray leash."
Like it or not, cellular phones have become the communication tool of choice for county workers who need to reach out and touch base. But how those phones are used and who is using them is still a concern to county auditors.
"We think it might be time for an update," Internal Auditor Jerry Carroll said, considering that costs have not decreased despite the recommendations made in the report to tighten cellular phone oversight and controls.
"We didn't say cut down the number of phones, just watch the usage," Carroll said. "We thought they had to be more careful."
While overall phone use is higher, the costs per person have dropped slightly. The average annual use per phone is currently $652, compared with $738 for the 1993-94 budget year. And air time has gone down from 11 minutes to 9 minutes a day in two years.
After examining cellular phone records during a two-year period, from 1992-94, auditors found that departments were not providing enough information to justify requests for cellular phones, and records of receipts for cellular phones were not being maintained.
Information Systems Director Steve Chapin said steps have been made to correct these oversights.
Another problem was that the county manager's administrative directive outlining the issuance and use of cellular phones was outdated, along with the billing system.
Originally enacted in 1986, the directive was last revised in 1990, two years before the transfer of the telecommunications division from General Services to Information Systems. Chapin said steps are being made to absorb the division and to computerize billing for all communications systems.
The directive has not been revised.
Auditors also found that the use of cellulars by the facilities division of the Department of General Services was much higher compared with other county departments -- four times larger than the county average of 12 minutes per work day.
During fiscal '93-94, the facilities division used 11 cellular phones and spent $23,984 -- or $2,184 per phone. The bill for 13 phones this year is expected to run close to $25,000.
Hawkes said the cellular phones have increased productivity in the facilities division greatly, and are essential for people such as Facilities Manager Joe Luera, who has the distinction of having the highest cellular bills at $554 a month on average.
Since Luera is responsible for every building in the county, the cellular is indispensable for his job, Hawkes said.
"We have found it to be an extensively valuable tool," Hawkes said. "That's why we're going to see a trend for more cellular utilization."
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