Thursday, April 23, 1998 | 9:45 a.m.
Sheriff Jerry Keller challenged any elected official, media representative or auditor to find fault in Metro Police's fiscal 1999 budget request at his quarterly press briefing on Wednesday.
"I would invite and welcome an audit," Keller said. "We're happy to open our books."
His comments came in response to allegations made by Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald that Metro's budget request pays for too many managers and not enough street cops.
"I just want to take a look at their books," McDonald said. "I want some questions answered."
Metro is asking the city of Las Vegas for about $70 million -- an 8 percent increase from last year's request. Metro also is asking Clark County for about $93 million to pay for its share of police services -- an 8 percent increase for the county as well.
Overall, Metro's budget comes to almost $212 million, with the remainder paid for through a ballot initiative tax override that was passed in 1988 and also in 1996.
McDonald, along with the rest of the City Council, raised questions about Metro's request earlier this week at a budget workshop meeting. Metro's funding eats up the single largest chunk of the city's budget, and the council members wanted to know if an outside auditor had ever looked at Metro's books.
"They should be held to the same standard everyone else is," City Councilman Larry Brown said earlier this week.
When asked about having an outside auditor look at Metro's budget, Sheriff Keller said he'd be "very comfortable" with it. He pointed out that by law, Metro is required to and already receives a yearly outside audit as well as a yearly review by Clark County auditors.
Keller, along with Metro Comptroller Lois Roethel, explained some of the more specific aspects of Metro's budget including:
* The difference in prices for patrol cars for different sub stations and units. Roethel said that some cars, like those used as undercover cars, don't have any equipment and can be purchased for as low as $15,000. Other vehicles, like those used for rural Clark County, need to be running 24 hours a day over dirt roads and can cost more than $30,000. The different types of vehicles needed are not separated in the budget request. Rather they're just lumped together and read "22 replacement vehicles" with a dollar request.
* The cost of school crossing guards. Mayor Jan Laverty Jones said she wanted to know why Metro couldn't keep all of the city's school crosswalks staffed with crossing guards. Sheriff Keller said that he would be willing to allow the city to take over that responsibility and credit the city $236,000 in its budget request.
* The origin of statistics used regarding Metro's successes. Keller told the Clark County Commission on Tuesday that he loses the effective force of 12 police officers a month because of the Valley's growth. The number comes from statistics that state 6,000 people move to Las Vegas a month while the goal is to have two police officers for every thousand people. In this number, however, he didn't take into account the number of people that move out of the city every month and that Metro's current ratio is 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents.
* The more than $4 million budgeted for overtime. Roethel pointed out that unlike other jobs, police can't necessarily stop what they're doing when they hit 40 hours a week. She also added that $1.6 million of the overtime is paid for by outside sources for the police to cover special events, like concerts.
Both Clark County and the city of Las Vegas are scheduled to approve the budget next month, which will then be sent to the state for approval in June.
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