Tuesday, March 30, 2004 | 11:36 a.m.
A city-county committee is recommending approval of Sheriff Bill Young's slightly scaled down request for a budget increase to pay for 100 new Metro Police officers.
The department's fiscal oversight committee voted 3-2 Monday to approve Young's 8.87 percent, or $31 million, increase for his supplemental budget. The budget will go to the Clark County Commissioners and the Las Vegas City Council for final decision.
Young gave an impassioned presentation Monday morning to the committee, which is comprised of a civilian chairman, two Clark County commissioners and two Las Vegas City Council.
The crime rate in Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County has jumped 25 percent in the past two years, Young told them.
For an area that "doesn't make anything, doesn't build anything, doesn't export anything but just offers people a good time, that (crime rate) doesn't play well on a national stage," Young said.
Young said "there's no fat" in Metro's budget. An 8.87 increase in supplemental funding is needed to fulfill basic services, to keep up with the growing population and to cover homeland security costs incurred by Metro, he said.
Commissioners Rory Reid and Mark James and civilian chairman Peter Thomas voted in favor of Young's budget request. Councilman Gary Reese and Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald voted against the request, saying they felt Metro deserved a larger increase in funding.
In the effort to use as much money as possible for Metro's payroll, the committee looked at various options, including a proposal that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority pay Metro for space that the department rents in its building instead of the other way around.
Though Reese admitted to being a little facetious in his suggestion, he said he was serious about making every penny count.
The annual rent of $26,400 that Metro pays to the LVCVA for space occupied by the department's tourist safety bureau represents less than 1 percent of Metro's $383 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
But, Reese said, "When you have $20,000 here and $5,000 there, it adds up. If we have enough of those, it could pay for three police officers. We need as many officers as we can get."
Last week the county commissioners said the county could only afford an 8.5 increase in supplemental funding for the 2004-05 fiscal year which begins July 1. Young had initially requested a more than 10 percent increase in the supplemental funding.
Metro officials reworked their budget request, scaling back the number of officers sought from 145 to 100 and putting a planned in-house medical program on hold.
Young said he resented the characterization of Metro as being "a great ferocious animal" that's gobbling up money at the peril of other departments.
"I know there are needs everywhere, but the need for parks -- I'm not going to denegrate any other department," he said. "But we have to keep this community safe."
He pointed out that in the 1994-95 fiscal year, then-Sheriff Jerry Keller "had the guts" to ask the public to vote for a ballot initiative that would increase Metro funding through property taxes.
The department was able to hire 650 new police officers as a result, including 110 in the 1999-2000 fiscal year and in 111 in the 2000-2001 fiscal year.
Over the subsequent three years, Metro hired a total of 182 police officers -- about 60 officers per year -- by requesting funding increases from the county and city.
"I don't have to tell you folks that 60 police officers is spitting in the wind," Young told the committee Monday.
Young has a ballot initiative in the works and has raised about $650,000 in private money to campaign for the initiative. Most of the funding came from the gaming industry.
After Young's presentation, Reid, a lawyer, said the committee has to look at Metro's budget needs in the context of the rest of the public safty needs, such as the court system, the district attorney's office and the public defender's office, all of which need more funding.
"We need to do what we can to improve all aspects of public safety," he said.
Boggs McDonald said everyone is trying to differentiate between needs and wants, but "we are at a crossroads right now where we can't even fund our needs."
She said she'd like to see more officers on the streets and, citing the 311 Boyz gang violence problem in an upscale Northwest area last summer, said the demand for more police exists in all neighborhoods.
The rental agreement between the LVCVA and Metro also was on the department's fiscal affairs agenda Monday.
The department's tourist safety bureau had outgrown its City Hall digs and relocated to the convention center several years ago "because they need to be closer to the action," Young said. The convention center is located roughly between downtown and the Strip.
Thomas said the LVCVA benefits by having Metro officers in their building.
"I'd prefer to renegotiate to see if we could get the rent waived," Thomas said.
Reese took it a step further, saying,"We ought to charge them for (the police) being there."
The committee decided to postpone a vote on that until the next meeting so that officials can see if the LVCVA would be willing to compromise.
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