Upcoming audit may help solve NLV police woes

Lisa Snedeker

Tuesday, March 16, 1999 | 11:14 a.m.

Major problems are surfacing for North Las Vegas Police, but it may take an impending audit to flush them out.

The police officers' union has been unable to negotiate with the city a contract that expired June 30, 1998.

One officer is facing misdemeanor battery charges filed by other officers.

Another officer was disciplined for reporting to work with alcohol on his breath.

And the department's top official, Police Chief Joey Tillmon, is today serving the last of a two-day suspension without pay.

City Manager Pat Importuna, who supervises the department, is referring all questions concerning the police chief's suspension to City Attorney Richard Maurer, who says he cannot discuss personnel matters.

A source in the department who wished to remain anonymous did confirm, however, that the majority of the officers are upset over the chief's suspension.

Attempts to reach Tillmon, who took over as chief in 1997 after Alan Nelson was fired for drunken driving, were unsuccessful.

Police Lt. Joe Forti, department spokesman, said he could not discuss personnel issues but added that in 19 years he has not seen as many negative issues come up in the department at a given time as there are now.

"It affects morale," he said. "But the officers are keeping a positive attitude despite everything that is going on around them. We've got to get on with the business of running the department."

A number of officers say they plan to address the North Las Vegas City Council during the public forum portion of its 7 p.m. Wednesday meeting in City Hall.

A flier being distributed by STOP DUI, a Nevada nonprofit organization, says the group plans to call upon the City Council to pursue an in-depth investigation of the police department's administrative procedures.

Hughes, Perry and Associates, a San Francisco-based firm, was chosen earlier this month to conduct a performance and organizational audit of the police department.

The audit is the second in a series being conducted by outside firms of all city departments -- the detention center was first -- to help the city operate more efficiently, Importuna said earlier. The audit should take 24 weeks, he said.

North Las Vegas residents pay the highest property taxes in the valley and more than 20 percent go toward public safety. One of the driving forces behind the audit is that the three public safety taxes don't appear to be adequate.

The city and the police officers' union recently began renegotiating a contract for police and detention officers. The City Council voted Aug. 5 not to accept the contract 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.

Last week Michael Thomas, 38, a drug abuse resistance education officer, was charged with two counts of misdemeanor battery, according to the city attorney's office and the Municipal Court. Thomas said Monday, however, he has yet to receive a summons.

"I have received no notification whatsoever," he said. "All I know is what I read (in the newspapers)."

Thomas' attorney, Victor Perri, did not want to comment about the criminal charges surrounding 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 North Las Vegas Police Officers' Association.

Thomas, who is on paid leave, and another officer, John Armstrong, also on paid leave, were terminated two years ago. Perri said both went through arbitration and both prevailed. In Armstrong's case no discipline was determined to be needed.

In Thomas' case, Perri said the arbitrator determined that the officer may have been subject to minor discipline. The arbitrator, according to Perri, said in effect there was a vendetta against Thomas, who has been with the department since June 1993.

"They both sought representation through the union, and the union refused representation for arbitration, so each brought separate claims that the union had not properly represented them (as members of the collective bargaining unit)," he said.

Three officers, including Thomas and Armstrong, have civil lawsuits with Perri pending against the police union.

Perri said among other violations, the lawsuits charge that the union is violating a state law that prohibits a union from including both supervisors and rank-and-file personnel within the same bargaining unit, which the North Las Vegas association does.

"The complaint alleges that the representation was denied arbitrarily," he said. "It is a conflict of interest because the same ones making the disciplinary decisions have some say over whether representation should be granted."

The union has filed a counter claim in Thomas' case and now the lawsuit is in the discovery phase, Perri said.

"My problems with the police department didn't start until I filed a lawsuit against the union," Thomas said.

Union representatives could not be reached for comment.

Former Officer Joe Austin, who was with the department for 27 years, hired Perri Monday to represent him in arbitration with the city over whether he was properly terminated two years ago as well. Perri said the collective bargaining unit allows arbitration with the city without union representation.

When Sgt. Tim Grady was placed on administrative leave with pay Feb. 25 pending an internal investigation into whether he came to work under the influence of alcohol, it sent more shock waves through the department.

Forti said under city policy, employees are considered intoxicated if they come to work with a 0.05 blood-alcohol level. The police department's policy, Forti said, is even more strict: "You shall not drink so much that when you report to duty, there is an odor of intoxicant upon your person."

A breath test revealed Grady was under the blood-alcohol limit of 0.05. An alcohol level of 0.10 is needed to prove drunken driving.

Forti said if an officer is in violation of department policy, it is up to the chief to decide the punishment. "There might be other factors involved," he said.

While Forti would not release any details on the chief's suspension, sources within the department say it is because he gave Grady a written reprimand without suspension.

Grady, a 20-year veteran, is in charge of the department's DUI checkpoint program.

STOP DUI Executive Director Sandy Heverly said her organization at Wednesday's meeting will ask the council numerous questions in hopes a comprehensive inquiry into the matter will follow.

Metro Police Lt. Greg McCurdy, president of the Southern Nevada chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said both his organization and the Black Police Association of Nevada stand behind Tillmon and want to see equity.