Columnist Jeff German: Where’s the justice in this raise?

Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2003 | 11:02 a.m.

Money is tight in county government, but you'd never know it from this week's County Commission meeting.

Commissioners voted unanimously to give a dozen justices of the peace in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas a 30 percent pay raise. Their salaries are going up from $99,000 to $128,700, costing taxpayers an additional $440,000 a year.

Another eight justices of the peace in rural Clark County are receiving even larger salary hikes that will burden taxpayers to the tune of $300,000 more annually.

The raises, which are retroactive to July, bring the pay scale of the justices in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas close to that of district judges, who now earn $130,000 a year by decree of the Legislature. The justices are responsible for deciding whether criminal defendants should stand trial in District Court.

If you think it's rather odd that the commissioners would be so generous to the JPs during these tough financial times, you're not alone.

The hikes didn't come recommended by County Manager Thom Reilly, who 10 weeks ago sent an e-mail to all employees warning that the county was operating in an "environment of fiscal uncertainty." He also announced that he would be taking a pay cut.

In the past year, at Reilly's request, the commissioners have approved $70 million to bail out both the struggling University Medical Center and the unfinished Regional Justice Center. Financial problems at both places have forced Reilly to hold up millions in planned community center and park renovations for county residents.

Now, it turns out, Monday's commission vote could cost the county millions more by undermining its bargaining position during intense contract talks with some 8,000 county and UMC workers represented by the Nevada Service Employees Union.

Negotiations have bogged down over differences in cost-of-living raises sought by the employees, who have been working without a new collective bargaining agreement since July.

Union leaders have asked for a 3.9 percent raise the first year of a new four-year contract, but Reilly has formally offered only 2 percent. It's a difference of about $12 million.

How can Reilly maintain his tough negotiating position now that the commissioners have hiked the salaries of justices of the peace by 30 percent and, in some cases, much more?

A good union negotiator will have no trouble exploiting that disparity. If the county, after all, can afford to give the justices a giant pay raise, it certainly can afford small cost-of-living increases for the employees in the trenches, some of whom work for the justices.

Woodbury, a lawyer, acknowledges that the salary vote can be "made to look bad." But he insists that the county will be saving, not losing, millions in the long run.

The justices of the peace, he said, were prepared to demonstrate a need to create three new positions in Las Vegas and one in Henderson.

But out of the kindness of their hearts, the justices sent word to the commissioners that they wouldn't push for the new seats on the bench as long as the commissioners gave them the big bucks they wanted.

The commissioners demonstrated this week that they know how to reward such kindness.

Had they done the smart thing, they would have waited until a new labor agreement was reached with the county workers before considering the pay raises for the JPs.

That way the commissioners would have avoided tipping their hand in the contract negotiations, and they would have gotten a better idea of whether it made sense to cave in to the justices in this "environment of fiscal uncertainty."