Editorial: A vote to gain a vote

Friday, Oct. 14, 2005 | 7:50 a.m.

On Tuesday the Clark County Commission will take the unusual step of voting to remove one of its members from a regional panel.

The member, Commissioner Tom Collins, favors a proposed new contract for Metro Police officers with a 25.6 percent raise in salary and benefits over its four-year duration. Collins, elected in November on the strength of his union endorsements and support for police, was appointed in January by fellow commissioners to the Metro Police Fiscal Affairs Committee, which has sole power over Metro's finances.

The intended vote to remove Collins from Fiscal Affairs is based on the theory that elected members of regional committees should represent the board on which they serve. In this case, Collins is a lone wolf. He is the only one of the seven county commissioners who supports the proposed contract.

If Tuesday's vote passes, it would remove Collins from the five-member committee and replace him with County Commission Chairman Rory Reid. This switch would likely assure the county of the three votes needed to send the proposed contract to arbitration.

County Manager Thom Reilly and the other six commissioners say the contract goes way beyond what they had anticipated when negotiations began in February. They fear not only its effect on current programs that might have to be cut to accommodate the increases, but also what precedent the contract would set for other employee contracts.

They also are concerned that voters, who approved a quarter-cent sales tax increase so that more officers could be hired, will view the contract as a betrayal of their intent.

The police union says the contract is justified because officers for years have had less health coverage than other public employees, and that it will be hard to recruit police officers to Las Vegas, where an average home costs more than $300,000, if salaries don't get a decent boost.

However persuasive either argument may be, we agree with the position that an elected representative on a regional panel should support his board's majority view. One member of the Fiscal Affairs Committee is a private citizen, representing a cross section of voters. Two are Las Vegas City Council members, representing the city's 30 percent share of Metro's costs. The other two are county commissioners, as the county picks up the other 70 percent. We believe the County Commission is being reasonable in expecting both of its members to represent its majority view, as well as its majority cost.