Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Columnist Jon Ralston: Despite ouster, Collins not ready to ride off into the sunset

Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program Face to Face on Las Vegas ONE and publishes the Ralston Report. He can be reached at (702) 870-7997 or at [email protected].

Some prime, still-fresh leftovers from the week, with a look at Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson's entrance into the governor's race coming in Sunday's column ...

Back in the saddle again: Cowboy Tom Collins, looking no worse for wear after getting kicked in the teeth by his colleagues Tuesday, clearly blames county management and media coverage for the police contract being on life support.

Collins said as much during an interview Wednesday on "Face to Face" and backed off not a whit from defending the contract and the sheriff. He had no store-bought pies to use as props -- as he did at the County Commission meeting where his colleagues excised him from the Metro Fiscal Affairs Committee, which is slated to vote on the contract on Monday. But Collins did draw a pie on a piece of paper and held it up on the program. I doubt the image was as powerful as those real pies.

He also said that it's possible the contract could be negotiated before it goes to arbitration: "Don't let it cost you anymore. Don't demoralize your law enforcement ... your public safety sector and let it get done so you can go out and hire more cops and make this place safer."

Collins said county managers and his colleagues "think a fact-finding arbitration is better. I don't seem to think so. I think they are going to pay just as much or more when it goes to arbitration." Imagine that backlash.

Counting to Three

With both City Council members voting yes and both county commissioners, now that Rory Reid has replaced Collins, voting no, the decision rests in the hand of the private sector vote, longtime banker/businessman Peter Thomas.

It's clear that the county folks are counting on him to vote no. And even if he were pressured to abstain because of business dealings with or pending before the county and city, a 2-2 vote scuttles the contract anyhow.

This is hardball politics at its finest. This situation, of course, points out the infirmities in the system. Why should this board, where an unelected appointee can decide how much public money is disseminated to a government agency, make this kind of decision?

No one seemed to care much in the past when the panel, led by the likes of other businessmen such as Kenny Guinn, rubber-stamped the police requests. My guess is any deal will include giving Sheriff Bill Young the autonomy he craves.

(One final note here: Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Thursday that his wish that the City Council have a say in this could occur during the next budget cycle when they could vote to withhold the money from the Metro contract if it were approved by Fiscal Affairs. Really?)

Ready to Rumble

Even before Gibson's gubernatorial announcement Thursday, his opponent, Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, was challenging him to five debates before the Aug. 15 balloting in the Democratic primary. She already has agreed to take on Gibson on "Face to Face" anytime in November, which sounds like a wonderful idea to me.

Talking Points

Mayor Oscar Goodman Quote of the Week: When asked by an ingenuous, ill-prepared radio interviewer about having been challenged on his truthfulness, the happy mayor separated himself from every other Homo sapien: "I have never lied knowingly in my life ... therefore if you don't do it knowingly, it's not a lie." The statement went unchallenged.

Mayor Oscar Goodman Quote of the Week, runner-up: When asked by the same softballer whether he had ever been afraid of mobster Tony Spilotro, accused of being a vicious killer, Goodman said he was always a "gentleman" and "never used a curse word" and was "never rude to my office staff" and was "the perfect client."

And then this gem: "The average person would be killed for saying this in politics, but I have a great deal of affection for Tony and his family." The average person, but not The Teflon Don of Las Vegas.

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