City manager returns, begins damage control

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1999 | 11:37 a.m.

Las Vegas City Manager Virginia Valentine returned from two weeks in Europe to find her city awash in rumor, innuendo and spin.

Valentine took the initiative by having a new staff member issue a press release in an attempt to calm the furor caused by leaked reports from the City Council that city staff was studying breaking up the Metro Police Department.

"I was amazed to get back and find out about the furor that has occurred when the study is in progress and no conclusions have been reached," Valentine said in the statement. "Staff tell me I can anticipate receiving a report in the next couple of weeks."

Meanwhile Metro's rank and file have rallied against any proposed deconsolidation of the force and residents have bombarded City Council offices with thousands of phone calls.

One council member received more than 1,200 calls last week from residents demanding the city leave Metro alone. During that same period about 13 residents called to say the city should form its own police force.

The volatile reaction to the in-house study's mere existence sent council members and Mayor Oscar Goodman into a dizzying week.

Councilman Michael McDonald initially came out in favor of deconsolidation based on preliminary results that the city could save $15 million annually by breaking away from Metro. By week's end he was denying ever having seen such a report and saying the whole thing was Goodman's idea.

Goodman then said he never requested a deconsolidation study -- only an examination of every city department to see if costs could be reduced and service improved.

As Metro was pulled from side to side over whom to blame, question or simply talk with, city officials were sent into a defensive spiral attempting to salve the wounded relationship with both Metro and Clark County, which co-funds the police department with the city.

"It also causes me great concern that Metro administration has chosen to rally its forces to attack the city for daring to conduct a study," Valentine said. "It would be irresponsible to not conduct an analysis of law enforcement spending when it represents such a significant portion of the city's budget."

The city spends almost 26 percent of its total budget on Metro. Las Vegas contributes $73.2 million to Metro's current budget.

If the final study recommends deconsolidation -- which council members have said the preliminary report does -- a simple majority vote of the five-member council could break the department up. The city could then start its own police force at the beginning of the next fiscal year -- July 1, 2000.

"This report was commissioned internally," Valentine said. "Metro was not contacted initially due to the politically charged and emotional nature of this topic. Our desire then, as it is now, is to produce a document that is independent of the politics of the city withdrawing from Metro."

Valentine said she would share the report with Goodman and the council after she receives it and reviews it.