Police group’s election fight resolved

Bill Gang

Tuesday, July 28, 1998 | 10:50 a.m.

A lawsuit alleging irregularities in the re-election of Police Protective Association president Andy Anderson has been decided in his favor, but the organization has been cautioned against continuing some of its election practices.

Metro Police Sgt. Monty Hall questioned whether retired officers could vote by mail for the head of the politically powerful organization that has represented hundreds of lawmen for nearly two decades.

The officer's attorney, Michael Stein, said Hall would have won handily if only the votes of current officers -- not the mail-in votes of retired members -- were counted, as he said association bylaws dictate.

But District Judge Nancy Becker ruled that if Hall had a problem with the voting system, he should have contested it before the 1997 election. Since he didn't, it is too late to raise it now.

The judge noted, however, that before mail-in votes are permitted in future elections, the members must vote in person to approve that system.

Becker also sided with the association on the larger issue of its very existence, which evolved out of the PPA that existed when the Las Vegas Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff's Office merged to become Metro Police.

She decided that since the old bylaws and constitution have been embraced since 1980 as the foundation of the new organization, it amounts to a legal basis for the PPA. To rule otherwise would have meant the PPA would no longer exist and likely would have led to multiple lawsuits over dues collections and actions taken.

Still at issue in the lawsuit is the legality of an increase in dues that was voted for by the board of directors in 1997 but not by the membership.