City study suggests forming own police

Erin Neff

Monday, Sept. 20, 1999 | 11:40 a.m.

Crime is down 36 percent. A new poll gives high marks to the Metro Police Department and a recent city-commissioned audit claimed it was among the best managed cop shops nationwide.

If it ain't broke, why fix it?

Depending upon whom you ask it's either a calculated way for Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald to flex his political muscle against enemy Sheriff Jerry Keller, or the best thing to happen to city taxpayers in three decades.

McDonald, who resigned from his job at Metro in April, leaked preliminary results of a city study that suggests savings of up to $15 million annually if the city secedes from Metro and forms its own police force.

With cost savings in the city a top priority, sources say at least two other council members support the effort. Mayor Oscar Goodman asked Detention and Enforcement Director Mike Sheldon to study possible deconsolidation as part of a citywide look at cost-savings.

"This is not the first time a council has asked us to look at this," said city Finance Director Mark Vincent, whose department is handling the fiscal impact portion of the study.

"They just seem to be a lot more serious this time."

Friday's hasty announcement -- which came during City Manager Virginia Valentine's vacation and just before McDonald himself left town -- sent shock waves rippling through both police on the beat and people on the street.

Keller and Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone immediately went on television news programs to denounce the proposal and defend Metro's performance, and both asked to meet with the council to find out why they want to secede.

"It's kind of disheartening," Malone told Las Vegas 1 on Friday. The cable news channel is a joint venture of the Las Vegas Sun, Channel 8 and Cox Communications and airs on channels 1 and 39.

"You hate to see something like this happen, when we're doing so many good things between the city and the county," he said.

He attributed the move for deconsolidation to poor communication between the City Council and Keller.

"If there is a perception problem that perhaps Metro is not providing services to the city of Las Vegas, then the City Council needs to meet with the sheriff and his staff and at least explain to him, 'Sheriff, these are the problems, and they need to be addressed.'

"I think there's just a lack of communication between the council and the sheriff."

He questioned a city study that said the city could save money with its own police department. "It seems like a conflict, because when you consolidate you save. When you deconsolidate, you duplicate services. I'd like to see the study."

Perhaps the reason lies in the cost savings, Vincent said, but added that service also plays a role.

"If you look at it solely from the city's perspective, it looks like it could save money," Vincent said. "However, finance isn't the only thing driving this."

Sheldon said that in addition to service and cost, accountability is a big part of the study.

"Is there more accountability with a city run department?" Sheldon asked.

Sheldon's department has 300 employees encompassing the city jail complex, parking enforcement, animal control and the 48-person deputy city marshal squad. City marshals have two canine units, bicycle, car and motorized bike patrols and a Situational Emergency Response Team (SERT).

By comparison, Metro has 3,500 employees, making it the 19th largest nationwide.

If secession is approved, it is likely Sheldon would be appointed police chief of a city department. Sheldon's base salary is $108,000. Keller's salary is $84,000.

McDonald's private feud with Keller, coupled with the recent arrests of the councilman's friend Robert Grosebeck, may play roles in the decision to release the information before either Metro or the county was informed the study was being conducted.

"I supported Jerry 100 percent when he ran for office back in '93," McDonald said. "Jerry Keller actually gave me my shot (as a cop). When I was just a rookie he taught me a lot about community policing. And then when I ran for office, I guess it just went downhill from there."

Why?

McDonald says: "I wish I knew."

Sources say McDonald resigned from his police job amid concerns he was taking sick leave when he wasn't ill. McDonald was spotted partying at the House of Blues Foundation Room on one such sick day on the eve of his resignation.

Last year, while still a patrol officer, McDonald was investigated and cleared by Metro's Internal Affairs Bureau after an anonymous letter accused him of using his position as a cop to harass sexually oriented businesses to help his friend Rick Rizzolo, owner of the Crazy Horse Too strip club.

The investigation came on the heels of McDonald's request for an audit of Metro's fiscal 1999 budget.

The DMG-Maximus study, released in March, ranked Metro among the best-managed departments nationwide. DMG-Maximus Director John Heiss only charged the city half of the $180,000 cost because he said that his initial audit found no evidence of wrongdoing to support finishing the study.

The city's police force and the county's sheriff's department consolidated in 1973 as a way to save taxpayer money and streamline services by ending costly duplication of specialized police services like crime labs and SWAT units.

Ever since, the agreement has been eyed by those favoring consolidation between the city and county governments as a positive example. Consolidation becomes a campaign issue nearly every year because city residents pay about $86 more annually in taxes on an average-priced $100,000 home than county residents.

If the city has its own police force, Las Vegas residents would no longer have to fund a 1996 police manpower bond issue.

"The 21-cent tax override would go away for our residents," Vincent said. "But would it go away for the unincorporated parts of the county? Certainly our tax rate would go down."

County Manager Dale Askew said this morning he is not convinced "this is a wise thing to do."

"We're fearful our costs will go up," Askew said. "I know their desire is for tax parity, but doing it at our expense isn't really fair."

Metro's $240 million fiscal year 1999-2000 budget is funded locally with $73.7 million from the city and $100.4 million from the county. The city's share of Metro funding is 25 percent of its overall budget, while the county's share is 16 percent of its budget.

Because the consolidation of Metro is simply an interlocal agreement, if one government pulls out, the agreement ends.

It is possible the City Council will consider secession from Metro as soon as October. If approved, Metro would be split up at the start of the next fiscal year on July 1, 2000, because of the joint city and county funding of the department.

There is little the County Commission can do to stop deconsolidation if the City Council chooses to go its own way, Malone said.

"I don't think there's anything we can do," he said. "If they have the votes, this will happen as early as July next year.

"We as the Clark County Commission have to prepare ourselves, because we will have a county sheriff's department."

The city and county will then need to figure out how to provide services to the county islands surrounded by city property, he said. "Are county sheriffs gonig to go into the city and provide those services, or do we have a local agreement as we do with the fire department that city of Las Vegas provide services to county residents."

Metro's Fiscal Affairs Committee, comprising two city councilman, two county commissioners and a private citizen, votes on the department's financial dealings. But that committee would have no role in approving or denying a secession.

The city would be required to give six months notice of its intent to secede from Metro to enable the department's resources to be split. That notice, would thus be needed by Jan. 1.

"There is a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done," Vincent said. "It's a lot easier putting things together than it is dismantling them."

But a majority of council members seems ready to start that process.

Goodman, who was not available for comment today because of the Yom Kippur holiday, previously said he would push for any consolidation or cost-savings efforts that made sense.

But sources say McDonald has pushed hardest for the secession. During a recent interview he hinted he would "have some big news about Metro soon."

McDonald has publicly questioned Metro's handling of the Labor Day weekend arrest of Groesbeck, Silver State Disposal Services Inc.'s corporate counsel and a former mayor of Henderson.

Groesbeck was arrested on charges of open and gross lewdness for allegedly fondling a woman at the House of Blues Foundation Room. Groesbeck has since plead guilty to reduced charges of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace in exchange for community service and payment of a fine.

McDonald said he arrived at the private club while Groesbeck was in custody and was surprised to later learn his name was in a police report.

"Someone's trying to taint me," McDonald said. "I got there clearly after everything took place, clearly after he was already in custody and hand-cuffed but yet Metro has my name in the report and it wasn't put in there by the man that is in the middle of all of it, Sgt. Clark Paris.

"Somebody else put it in there," McDonald said. "Someone is upper management, toward the top of Metro, put it in there or told the dispatcher to put it in there."

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