Mayor denies study done

Erin Neff

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 11:21 a.m.

Suddenly there is no study.

Day four of reaction to leaked news that the city of Las Vegas is studying forming its own police department began with an unequivocal denial by Mayor Oscar Goodman that such a study exists.

"We do not have a report," Goodman said during his weekly press conference Thursday. "I don't know what this is. This has been created out of whole cloth."

Even though his council colleagues have discussed preliminary financial implications determined by the in-house review of the Metropolitan Police Department, Goodman said he was not privy to the same information.

Goodman said he asked each department to examine cost-efficiency, but he added he never requested a study into the deconsolidation of Metro.

The mayor grew more defensive at his press conference with each new question. When asked if the council could vote on deconsolidation at its Oct. 6 meeting as Councilman Michael McDonald suggested could happen, Goodman stepped back from the lectern with an incredulous look.

"Vote on what?" he said.

When a television reporter mentioned the study, he questioned, "What study?"

Yet in another breath he said he expected the report to be finished Monday.

McDonald, who has been conducting broadcast interviews in which he states his support for deconsolidation, has taken a similar approach.

On Thursday's "Point of View Vegas" program televised on Las Vegas 1, he said he had not seen a report.

"I don't have dime one, paper one of information," McDonald said on the news-discussion program, which is produced by the Las Vegas Sun.

"The staff is the one doing the report, we haven't seen it," he added.

But later he mentioned having heard the same preliminary savings report that triggered deconsolidation talk in the first place.

A study that has been conducted for the past five weeks by the city's Finance and Detention and Enforcement divisions has determined Las Vegas could save up to $15 million annually if it split from Metro and formed its own police force.

Although McDonald claims the report was ordered by Goodman and Goodman claims he never asked for a deconsolidation study, such a report will land on City Manager Virginia Valentine's desk on Monday when she returns from a vacation in Europe.

While the report's existence is being denied on the top floors of City Hall, Clark County and Metro officials are taking no chances.

County Manager Dale Askew said the county will hold off on putting out to bid a jointly funded city and county Metro training center.

"We're holding up on letting the bids on the new training center that is city and county jointly funded, until this issue of deconsolidation is settled," Askew said.

The Las Vegas Police Protective Association will spend $25,000 to fight deconsolidation and plans a joint meeting next Tuesday with its civilian union counterpart to determine the next step.

But Metro's brass, led by Sheriff Jerry Keller, Undersheriff Richard Winget and Comptroller Lois Willis, have launched their own public-relations offensive.

On Thursday's "POV Vegas" show, Winget said, "This (consolidated) system has proven to work so efficiently, it hurts us to even consider breaking it up."

Winget also discounted claims that Las Vegas residents might be subsidizing county residents for police service.

He said Las Vegas funds 42 percent of Metro, even though 46 percent of Metro's resources are assigned to the city. The city also accounts for more than half of Metro's calls for service, he added.

"The city of Las Vegas is getting one heck of a good bang for its buck," Winget said.

Willis added that she could find no way to make a city-run police force feasible.

She said that if Las Vegas' current 42 percent of Metro's overall budget would be applied to the $200 million of that budget spent on salaries, the city would end up with an $84 million price tag just to fund personnel.

"That's without even having gas to put in the black-and-white vehicles," Willis said.

McDonald appeared alone on "POV" in the segment after Winget and Willis because of conditions he set before agreeing to be on the show. His staff said McDonald would not appear at the same time as sheriff representatives.

When he did talk with host Mark Shaffer, McDonald softened his stance on Metro and claimed he had been a "whipping post" in the media over the past week.

"Don't forget, this is still my family," said McDonald, who served as a Metro officer for 10 years before resigning in April.

He denied he was interested in serving as police chief for any new city force.

"No way. I'm up here," he said raising his hand. "I'm up on the 10th floor (of City Hall), why would I go down to eighth?"

Keller's office is on the eighth floor, yet being just two stops above the sheriff in the elevator hasn't helped smooth McDonald's relationship with Metro's chief cop.

But McDonald said on "POV" that he would not let a personal feud with Keller drive deconsolidation.

"We have problems that are professional, not personal," he said. "We would never ever split up the department to get back at him."

Talk of deconsolidation has struck a raw nerve in the community since last Friday's first reports of the city study.

And some residents have expressed surprise to learn Metro's 26-year consolidation could be broken apart by simply three votes on the five-person City Council.

If the council votes to deconsolidate, Metro would be split effective July 1, 2000.