LV weighs parks against new employees

Sito Negron

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

Las Vegas city officials are projecting a nearly 10 percent boost in revenues that will allow for the hiring of 54 new employees, but if the city does all that hiring, it will mean it won't be able to spend as much money on parks as some council members would like.

"If it's more important to have ... a park than to hire a few people, that debate has to take place," Councilman Larry Brown said during a budget hearing Tuesday.

The majority of the money for parks is scheduled for two projects, $15 million for phase one of the Alexander Hualapai Park in Brown's Ward 4 and $6 million for the Centennial Hills Leisure Center in Ward 6, represented by Councilman Michael Mack.

The city came up about $6 million short to pay for the parks council members said they wanted.

"I don't see squeezing $6 million out in salaries," said City Finance Director Mark Vincent. He said the city cannot continue to build new facilities, such as parks, without having the employees to maintain them.

In the end, the council directed Vincent to continue tweaking the budget in an attempt to figure more park money into the budget, which has to be adopted before June 30, the end of the current 2003-2004 fiscal year.

Councilwoman Janet Moncrief questioned why two projects should eat up about $20 million of the $24.7 million available in "unrestricted funding" for parks.

"I'm not saying they're not needed. I'm just looking at the numbers," she said.

Councilman Lawrence Weekly, whose Ward 5 was to receive $260,000 from the $24.7 million pot of parks money, said "I guess this is not one of those feel-good times ... we all got to do what we all got to do."

Mayor Oscar Goodman stepped in at the end, saying that council members have worked together in the past, and "I hope in the future we can work together for the city as a whole."

The parks issue was the only slight bit of bad news the council received during the briefing. The operating budget is set at $416 million, a 10 percent increase over last year, which allowed the city to budget for the 54 new positions.

Those positions include seven marshals and five detention employees, 12 new field operations employees, seven people in the Fire Department -- including four fire investigators, five new employees for municipal court, and two each for the city manager's office, the city attorney's office, and neighborhood services.

The budget increase was attributed to sales and other taxes collected by the state, and from the "growth in assessed (property) valuation," Vincent said.