No harmony on the horizon in Metro contract dispute

J. Craig Anderson

Monday, Oct. 17, 2005 | 7:21 a.m.

J. Craig Anderson

Although Sheriff Bill Young describes Metro as "the Cadillac" of police departments, top union officials in other jurisdictions say the system Clark County uses to approve law enforcement contracts is a lemon.

Eight months into the process of negotiating a new four-year contract for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department employees, the primary stakeholders are still at odds, and the prospects of reaching mutual agreement are grim.

Each of the two chief opponents, Clark County Manager Thom Reilly and Sheriff Bill Young, has accused the other side of manipulating an established system of determining salary and benefit increases for Metro personnel.

The charge against Metro, which serves as the police force for both Clark County and Las Vegas, is that management has ignored the county's vocal disapproval of the proposed contract because it needs only three friendly votes on the five-member Fiscal Affairs Committee.

The committee is currently made up of County Commissioners Tom Collins and Chip Maxfield, Las Vegas City Councilmen Gary Reese and Larry Brown, and developer Peter Thomas.

Clark County is under fire for its plans to remove Collins -- who supports the contract -- to be replaced by Chairman Rory Reid. County officials who oppose the deal's unprecedented 25.6 percent compensation boost say they hope the committee swap will swing the vote in their favor.

During the past week, the argument has centered on how much compensation Metro officers deserve, and how much county taxpayers can afford to give them.

Bob MacLeod, executive director of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs in Santa Ana, Calif., said the fact that such issues are being debated in the media and in public meetings points to a more fundamental problem.

"The time for them to have that input is before an agreement is reached," said MacLeod, who serves as chief negotiator for sheriff's department personnel in Orange County.

Jeffrey Monical, communications manager for the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, has 25 years of experience sitting through contract negotiations. He is not surprised at the current discord between Metro and Clark County, which funds 70 percent of Metro's budget.

Monical said most public agencies that use collective bargaining -- direct negotiations between the union and employer to determine wages, benefits and working conditions -- do not have to deal with as many stakeholders and layers of government.

"It's not a recipe for success," he said. "There's no clear chain of accountability."

Monical said it is not unusual in California to have cities contract with a county sheriff's department to provide law enforcement services, but those cities only have the right to approve or change their own contracts.

He said the county should be ultimately responsible for funding decisions relating to the sheriff's department, because otherwise it cannot be held accountable if things go wrong.

"It works great until there's a problem," such as a scandal involving excessive use of force, Monical said.

MacLeod agreed that the use of a fiscal affairs committee "grossly complicates an already grossly complicated issue," because it requires representatives from two governmental entities to cast the deciding votes.

Still, he said asking the city of Las Vegas to relinquish its share of control over Metro's budget at this point would be unrealistic and cause even more friction.

Instead, he said the goal should be to improve communication among all participants in the process -- before private negotiations become a public fight.

Both Reilly and Young have suggested they may pursue changes to the contract approval process through legislation, but neither has developed a specific plan.

Young spent the bulk of a 30-minute press conference last Thursday making his case for the compensation increase and railing against the "inaccurate and misleading information" disseminated by his opponents and the media.

Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa, who attended the press conference, took issue with Young's contention that the contract would not provide 10 percent annual raises.

"That's obviously wrong," Pappa said, referring to the contract's 6 percent to 7 percent annual compensation increases, combined with a 4 percent annual "step increase" for the two-thirds of Metro personnel who have not reached the top of their pay scale.

MacLeod said reaching a mutual agreement is not always possible, but the failure to make a determined effort ultimately hurts police officers and the public.

"I would not take a job where I had to deal with those kinds of problems," he said.

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