Union, county continue battle

Wednesday, March 24, 2004 | 9:39 a.m.

A Clark County budget discussion Tuesday reopened a simmering battle between the county's employee unions, including the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, and the county management.

County Finance Director Stevens and County Manager Thom Reilly repeated their contention that the growth in the salaries and benefits for rank-and-file employees has outstripped inflation and growth in compensation in the private sector, has limited the county's ability to hire new workers to serve the rapidly growing population, has crippled the ability to fund needed capital projects and facility maintenance, and ultimately could lead to layoffs if not controlled.

"There are not any resources available to fund new positions in the county general fund," Stevens said. "Virtually every function in the county has declined significantly since 1995 in terms of the number of full-time or equivalent employees per 1,000 population."

Stevens said the growth in revenue is not the problem.

"Revenues have kept pace with the population," he said. "We cannot argue that we're suffering a serious deficit on the revenue side of the equation. Clearly, the issue for us going forward is controlling the cost of government. Our average cost for full-time employees is growing more rapidly. We can't sustain that and not see a deterioration in the number of employees we have."

In 1995, the number of full-time employees per 1,000 was 3.4, Stevens said. By this year, that number had dropped to 2.8 per 1,000. During the same period, the average county worker's compensation had grown from $54,318 to $76,416.

SEIU officials have said the county could take money out of its reserve fund or from capital projects to fund new positions, options that Stevens and Reilly said are untenable.

The capital budget is already below what is needed for maintenance of existing buildings and infrastructure, Stevens said, while Reilly said that the reserve fund is needed to maintain the county's healthy bond rating.

Reilly, however, has asked in a letter to SEIU Local 1107 for meetings with the union leadership. He said he has not yet had a meeting with the leadership.

In the same letter, Reilly criticized representations by the union of funding, including a recent union report that showed revenues growing faster than employee compensation.

He said the union failed to consider the costs of compensation for Metro police and detention center employees.

Reilly said in the letter, as he has before, that he has no intention of opening up last year's completed contracts to pursue a wage reduction. He also said a recent flier distributed by the union that showed a caricature of him with two heads was "a derogatory attack upon the administration and a personal attack against me," and a violation of the county-union collective bargaining agreement.

Chris Salm, SEIU research director, disputed Reilly's points.

"We've offered Thom Reilly almost 40 opportunities beginning in the spring of 2002 to sit down and talk about his in the proper context," Salm said, noting that most of the debate on the compensation issue has been in the media. Still, "That door is always open," he said.

He said the union continues to disagree with the financial conclusions reached by Stevens and Reilly. The flier with Reilly's two heads, he said, was not derogatory but quoted directly from newspaper articles on the issue.