North Las Vegas: Pay raises for police approved

Lisa Snedeker

Thursday, June 3, 1999 | 10:30 a.m.

The North Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday approved without a word nearly a 5 percent raise in pay and benefits for nonsupervisory police and detention officers.

The contract with the nonsupervisor unit of the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association for July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2002, was approved unanimously as part of the consent agenda.

The total contract will cost the city $2.14 million over the next three fiscal years.

Police and detention officers in April received a 6.5 percent pay and benefit increase covering the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. The raise was approved unanimously by the City Council as part of a four-year contract that covers 280 officers. What remained to be negotiated were the wages and benefits -- including longevity pay, medical insurance and uniform allowances -- for the next three years.

Union members ratified the nonsupervisory contract last month, but the supervisory contract was voted down. For the first time in the city's history the police contract was broken in two -- one for rank-and-file officers and one for supervisors.

As part of the contract, new police officers will be hired at about 5 percent less than the lowest step in a one-year probationary period.

While there is no increase in insurance benefits for the first year, it may be open to negotiation over the following two years.

The council voted last August not to accept the union's proposed agreement because the increased cost of the contract for the first year would have been about $1.5 million, or $833,000 more than what had been budgeted.

In a related matter, two leaders from the militant Jewish Defense League told the council they planned a rally today in front of the North Las Vegas Police Department in response to allegations made by a police officer who is on administrative leave and an officer who was recently fired on charges of sexual harassment.

Bill Maniaci, the JDL's Nevada director, told the council during the public forum the league has taken up the cause of Officer Mike Thomas, who has been on paid leave since Dec. 22 and claims he has been subjected to anti-Semitic comments for the past two years, and former Officer John Armstrong, who claims to have been subjected to racial slurs.

"I believe we have some problems here," Maniaci said.

Mayor Michael Montandon told Maniaci that the city "will not tolerate racism in any form."

Lt. Joe Forti, police department spokesman, said earlier that Thomas' claims of bias within the department were not true.