Metro contract will get another look

J. Craig Anderson

Monday, Nov. 28, 2005 | 8:19 a.m.

Metro Police, Las Vegas and Clark County officials say they will put aside past differences and work together to hammer out a new four-year police contract with union officials.

The county has repeatedly sided against Sheriff Bill Young and city representatives on the Metro Fiscal Affairs Committee, who have supported a proposed 25.6 percent compensation increase over four years for rank-and-file cops.

However, the three parties have hired a lawyer -- Chicago-based labor and employment law specialist Ted Clark -- who will represent all of them in future dealings with the Metro Police Protective Association, the union that represents the police officers.

"They're all basically one front going forward," said Karen Keller, Metro's executive director of finance. "That's the management side versus the union side, which the (Police Protective Association) is on."

The Fiscal Affairs panel will meet today to decide whether to use binding arbitration or a preliminary "fact-finding" process to settle the dispute. Young and union leaders have said the voluntary fact-finding would be a waste of time, and want to reach a legally binding decision as soon as possible.

County Manager Thom Reilly said the county is likely to follow whatever direction Clark gives after consulting with all three clients.

"I think we would probably support what our legal counsel recommends," he said.

Binding arbitration, the likely next step, is similar to a court proceeding in that the arbitrator has judge-like power to impose a decision.

However, arbitration is faster and less expensive, and allows both sides of the dispute to set predetermined limits on the decision. For instance, management could place a cap on how much the arbitrator could award, and the union could set a minimum standard.

The more likely scenario is that each side will submit its own contract proposal, after which the arbitrator will decide between the two, with the possibility of additional negotiations throughout the process.

Like a judge, an arbitrator can examine evidence, such as transcripts of meetings and other documents, to determine which side the law favors.

The Police Protective Association filed a lawsuit Oct. 31 stating that Nevada laws governing the Fiscal Affairs Committee do not give it the authority to deny police contracts.

However, Reilly has called the lawsuit "theater." A two-page document outlining ground rules for the negotiations, dated Feb. 2 and signed by representatives of Metro and the union, invalidates the union's case, he said, because it includes a condition that "all agreements are tentative and subject to final approval of the Association members, the Sheriff, and the Fiscal Affairs Committee."

Young has been at odds with Clark County throughout the dispute thus far, criticizing the County Commission for removing Commissioner Tom Collins from Fiscal Affairs in mid-October, before the committee voted 3-2 against the contract.

Collins, who had been an outspoken supporter of the compensation increase, was replaced with Chairman Rory Reid because the majority of commissioners said they opposed the contract.

But Keller said it is time for Metro, the county and the city to move beyond past differences.

"That phase is behind us now," she said.

J. Craig Anderson can be reached at 259-2320 or at craig@lasvegassun.com.