NLV: Cop union, city near agreement

Lisa Snedeker

Thursday, April 8, 1999 | 11:14 a.m.

After nearly a year of working without a contract, the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association and the city may have come to an agreement.

A special City Council meeting has been scheduled for 5 p.m. April 15 to consider the ratification of a contract for police and detention officers, said James Walker, attorney for the city.

The timing couldn't be better.

About 40 residents turned out at Wednesday's council meeting to express their support for the city's police officers and to confront city leaders on the lack of a contract, which expired June 30, 1998.

Resident Donna Lewis told the council it was being disrespectful of the city's police officers by allowing them to continue to work without a contract or a salary raise.

"The last message you should be sending to the community is a lack of respect for police," she said.

On the other side of the council chambers, however, resident Leonard Heaton distributed fliers berating the police association for its newly negotiated contract that he claims calls for at least a 4 percent pay increase for four years.

The flier raised this question: "How can this be justified, while the cost of living index for the nation is 1.3 percent and the North Las Vegas police are already the highest paid police force in the state?"

Also in the flier was a statement accusing the union of covering up improper police actions as well as influencing City Council elections by showing candidates favoritism.

"North Las Vegas is run down and can't offer parks, streets, or lights because it's been the welfare mother to the unions," Heaton said.

With the exception of Councilman William Robinson, no one on the council responded to any of the accusations.

Robinson directed the city manager and the city attorney to settle the controversies surrounding the police department.

"We need to bring this to closure," he said.

The city and the police officers' union recently began renegotiating a contract for police and detention officers following an extended impasse. John Harper, attorney for the police union, however, would neither confirm nor deny Wednesday that the two groups were closer to hammering out a contract.

The City Council voted Aug. 5 not to accept the agreement because the cost of the contract for the first year would have been about $1.5 million -- $833,000 more than what had been budgeted, according to minutes from the meeting.

The overall cost to the city for the life of the proposed four-year contract would have been $11,289,059, according to city documents.

Members of the police association have said they have agreed to make plans to picket City Hall if they do not have a contract by their next meeting on April 14.

This is not the first time at recent council meetings that issues concerning the police department have dominated the public forum.

Residents last month told the council recent allegations that a police officer reported to work with alcohol on his breath constitutes a public safety issue, rather than a personnel matter.

Following the incident involving the officer, Police Chief Joey Tillmon was suspended without pay for two days.

While city officials would not release any details on the chief's suspension, sources within the department said it was because he gave the officer a written reprimand rather than a suspension.

City Attorney Richard Maurer said that as part of the police union contract, details of discipline measures given to officers are private, personnel matters.

But STOP DUI Executive Director Sandy Heverly, who asked the council for an independent inquiry into the matter and the department's administrative procedures, said she and her organization believe when a police officer, or anyone else, drives while intoxicated, it is a public safety issue.

Resident Mike Winne accused the police department of an attempted cover-up of the incident.

"It's not a personnel matter, it's a criminal matter," he said.

Officer Mike Thomas, who has been on paid leave from the department since December, Wednesday read a copy of a memorandum from a city attorney to the city manager that verifies the union is operating illegally under state law by having supervisors and line officers within the same bargaining unit. Thomas has a lawsuit pending against the city making the same accusations.

Thomas, a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer, is on leave pending charges of two counts of misdemeanor battery for a Dec. 22 scuffle that allegedly broke out in the police department's Detective Bureau, where Thomas was being questioned about a separate incident involving Dave Galyen, president of the police association.

Thomas and Officer John Armstrong, who is also on paid administrative leave for sexual harassment charges, claim they have been harassed because of pending lawsuits against the police union for failing to represent them.