Columnist Jeff German: Judges, court workers look for justice

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

Clark County officials have one heck of a revolt on their hands at Las Vegas Justice Court in what is becoming a mini-constitutional crisis.

It has more to do with money and power than legal issues.

And it has created turmoil and confusion for 148 Justice Court employees who have been placed in the position of wondering who's supposed to be signing their paychecks.

Justice Court officials, in a power play that may not have been well thought out, have broken a 2002 personnel agreement with the county that allowed court employees to fall under the county's management.

All eight justices of the peace signed a joint order last month announcing the court's intentions to withdraw from the agreement, which can be done with a 30-day written notice.

On Friday, after the 30 days were up, Chief Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo, without giving top county officials any advanced warning, put the plan into action when he informed court employees in a letter that they now fall under the management of the court, which is developing its own personnel rules and policies.

But county officials, irked at not being given an opportunity to discuss the management change ahead of time, aren't recognizing the move, which is straining relations between the court and the very people who hold its purse strings.

"The county still considers the vast majority of workers assigned to the court as county employees, and we will continue to treat them as such regardless of any votes taken by the judges or memos given to staff," County Manager Thom Reilly told Abbatangelo in an e-mail on Monday.

The justices, according to Abbatangelo, are tired of being micro-managed by the county. They want more autonomy and flexibility in dealing with their own employees. They want more say in how many people they can hire and where they can place them.

"There's a perception within county management that we are a department as opposed to a separate branch of government," Abbatangelo said.

But the justices, he said, also want a bigger share of the revenue they're generating for the county to help them fill badly needed positions in the overworked court -- which may be the real reason why they started this fight over the employees.

It comes at a time when the county is struggling to deal with supplementary budget requests from just about every county department and agency.

In his letter, however, Abbatangelo created more of a stir when he suggested that the court may not honor last year's collective bargaining agreement between the county and the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, which represents about 100 of the Justice Court workers. The agreement expires in 2006.

All that did was further enrage Reilly who, with the backing of the district attorney's office, informed Abbatangelo on Monday that the court has no legal authority to take it upon itself to void the union contract.

The union wasn't in a very good mood, either. It filed unfair labor charges against the justices of the peace with the Nevada Employee-Management Relations Board.

"This is just straight union-busting," said Jane McAlevey, the SEIU's executive director. "The employees are up in arms."

McAlevey said thousands of county workers who belong to the union are prepared to rally behind the Justice Court employees.

It is a fight in which the justices, county officials and union leaders all have good arguments to make.

The irony is that if they can't work out their differences, it may take a judge to settle things.