County workers’ wages unfair to community, officials say

Launce Rake

Friday, Feb. 20, 2004 | 11:36 a.m.

Clark County workers are making too much money and getting raises that are too large, and that is jeopardizing the services the county provides for a growing population, county managers are saying publicly.

Privately, some of the managers on the sixth floor of the Clark County Government Center -- and other officials both inside and outside the county government -- are saying that the collective bargaining rights granted local employees 35 years ago are the problem.

County Manager Thom Reilly, Administrative Services Director Don Burnette and Finance Director George Stevens have taken their concerns to the public. They argue that wages and benefits have gone up almost 41 percent since 1995, to an average of $76,416 annually. The pace outstrips the 23 percent increase in the Western Consumer Price Index, a yardstick of costs.

The outcome is a situation in which most of the increases in county revenues -- increases which have kept pace with the county's explosive population growth and inflation -- have gone to wages for existing workers rather than to hire new workers, they argue. The situation has led to staffing shortages across a broad range of county departments.

"We're getting to the critical point where our ability to offer new services to respond to the growth has ceased," Reilly said this week. "We're in danger of losing federal funds for family support services because of our lack of positions. We're way understaffed."

He noted that Governing magazine last month pegged local government wages in Nevada as fifth in the nation, trailing California, New Jersey, New York and Alaska.

The largest union representing Clark County employees doesn't argue that there are critical staffing shortages, but it says the target of some in county government is the collective bargaining rights granted by the Legislature more than three decades ago. Nevada is a "right-to-work" state, without guaranteed collective bargaining rules between unions and management.

Collective bargaining laws allow unions representing a workforce to negotiate on behalf of employees, whether or not individual employees are members of the union.

The collective bargaining rights granted by Legislative action were limited to local government workers.

Tom Beatty, executive director of the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, the union representing most of the county's 4,400 workers, said the movement to take away those rights is growing during what promises to be a contentious election year.

"We have at least some folks in county government that are kind of joining in that," Beatty said. "There has always been a movement afoot to do that. This is not a new concept.

"This is election year politics that you're seeing here."

Clark County Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield said collective bargaining "is problematic."

"It limits the bargaining ability of the county," he said. "We as a county need to be concerned about being able to provide services to the general public. Currently there is a concern about the costs of those services.

"Collective bargain has caused some concern and it should be looked at."

How it should be looked at, or changed, Maxfield said he did not know.

"It's a point that should be discussed."

Assemblywoman Chris Guinchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the problem in local government finances is not because of collective bargaining. Local government boards, she noted, have signed off on the employee contracts.

"If they sign off on it, they shouldn't be pointing fingers 30 years later and saying, 'Oh my gosh, we're paying them too much,' " she said. "Employees did not do this behind closed doors, by themselves.

"This is about an equal partnership. Employers and employees have an opportunity to sit down and work it out. ... It should be a win for both sides."

Managers at the county did not want to be identified expressing concern about collective bargaining, a potential political third rail. Burnette, in administrative services, said the issue would be up to the Legislature to resolve, if it chose to address collective bargaining.

The county, however, can directly affect the Legislative process. The county commissioners can ask the Legislature to consider bill drafts, and local government lobbyists can argue for their bills.

County commission support for such a move is far from guaranteed, however. Democrats, generally considered supportive of collective bargaining, have a 4-to-3 majority on the county board.

Republicans, generally considered unsympathetic to collective bargaining advocates, hold the governor's office and a majority in the state Senate, but Democrats control the Assembly by a narrow 23-to-19 majority.

Guinchigliani said a change in the Assembly balance of power could throw collective bargaining out.

Republicans "could be in the catbird seat to remove collective bargaining for all public employees, which I think is a sad state of affairs," she said.

Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, disagrees. He said collective bargaining makes sense for jobs such as firefighters or police officers, critical functions that are needed by communities across the state.

However, he said, "we've extended that policy into job classifications where that is not appropriate."

He said economic development employees or other noncritical employees should have the right to withhold their labor if they are unhappy with the terms of employment, just as employees in the private sector can.

Beers, who was one of a group of Republican holdouts in the Assembly that fought against a record $833 million tax increase last summer, said the next session of the Legislature, which begins in January 2005, could spell a change in collective bargaining rules for local government employees.

"It's my sense that we're going to see a more fiscally responsible Legislature next cycle, and I'm sure that would be an easy sell," he said. "Collective bargaining is one low-hanging fruit to look at.

"Certainly, if local government, which is the largest lobbying force in Carson City, comes up with an agenda to change the collective bargaining law, it will be looked at."

Reilly, the county manager, said his discussing the issue of wages and benefits is not an effort to take away collective bargaining.

He said that unions and management both have to come together to address the issues of wage increases that are going up faster than those for the rest of the population.

"This isn't just a union issue," Reilly said. "I think this is a joint issue between management and unions.

"Should local government wages exceed what everybody else is making in the community?"

Beatty, stung by local media coverage that did not include the union's perspective, said the problem is that the county spends money where it isn't needed -- on new hires.

"Why did (the county commission) just move last week $27 million to capital projects, which is pork projects for their districts?" he asked. "This county has never filled positions proportionate to growth. Never.

"Every year they underestimate revenue and overestimate their expenses. Now they want to shift money in an election year to pork projects they don't even need."

Finance Director Stevens, however, said capital funding is urgently needed. He said the county is barely covering the costs of upkeep on existing buildings and roads and other physical structures, costs that are included in the capital budget.

"If we're spending $60 million a year, we're just governing depreciation," he said.

Burnette said the county is spending about that, which means "the county is barely keeping up."

Burnette and Stevens agreed that the existing contract, signed a year ago and good until June 2006, does not provide much wiggle room for the county. The 2.75 percent cost-of-living raises built into the contract closely mirror inflation, but those raises do not take into account several other wage categories than can push wages up much faster.

About 3,000 of the 4,400 Clark County employees can receive "merit" increases of 4 percent a year. Employees also receive longevity pay based on how long they have served, a category that goes up every year.

Some employees also receive raises after being hired on a probationary period and other factors can push up annual wage increases above 10 percent, they said.

They said such compounded raises are more frequent for a custodian hired for $24,739 a year than the top level rank-and-file employee who can make $82,786, but is "topped out" and no longer eligible for merit increases. But the net effect is an average salary and benefits increase for full-time county employees of 5.1 percent, nearly twice the average inflation rate.

Beatty said the 5.1 percent takes into account the skills that county employees are learning, the experience they have in the jobs, and the fact that many of the jobs the county needs are highly specialized. Instead of criticizing employees for staying in the jobs they have learned, the county should appreciate the fact that it does not have a high rate of employee turnover, he said.

"Gas prices have gone up 32 percent since the holidays," Beatty said. "The median cost for a new home here has gone up 13 percent.

"There are a lot of factors that go into what is an adequate or fair salary."

He directed some of his anger directly at Reilly, who makes $178,200 a year.

"Let him try to raise a family on some of the wages out there," Beatty said. "Let him try it for a while."