Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Jeff German: Explaining why cops and their union are frustrated with arbitration

Jeff German's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Sun. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4067.

The contract arbitration process is wearing thin with the leader of the union that represents some 2,400 Metro Police officers.

Dave Kallas, executive director of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, tells me that he's "disappointed" with the closed-door proceedings, aimed at determining what kind of pay raise the cops should get.

This is the first time in the 32-year history of the consolidated Metro Police department that contract negotiations deteriorated to the point of having to call upon an independent arbitrator.

"All we're doing is rehashing what the contract committees have already done for the last several months," Kallas says.

"It's a shame that after 32 years we have to bring in somebody from outside our community to make a decision that will impact our community."

In other words the process has become a big waste of time to the cops.

There's been talk bandied about for weeks that both sides aren't even that far apart.

The California-based arbitrator, Douglas Collins, has the challenge of deciding whether the cops deserve a healthy contract calling for a 25.6 percent hike in wages and benefits over the next four years.

PPA members overwhelmingly ratified the contract in October. But it was rejected by the Metro Fiscal Affairs Committee, which oversees the police department's budget, following pressure from county officials who thought the deal was a bit rich.

Last week Sheriff Bill Young and City Councilman Larry Brown, who support the pay increase, appeared before Collins.

And this week George Stevens, the county's chief financial officer, was scheduled to give testimony. County Manager Thom Reilly also was waiting in the wings.

We won't know the arbitrator's decision until at least the end of February -- which means Kallas and the cops have plenty of time to vent their frustration.

* * *

Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan, the champion bodybuilders charged in the death of their live-in assistant, Melissa James, haven't even been extradited back to Las Vegas.

But at least one of them already may be preparing for a courtroom fight here.

Ryan -- in anticipation of her return from Boston, where she and her husband were captured just before Christmas -- has retained Tom Pitaro, one of the scrappier criminal defense lawyers in Las Vegas.

Sandy Murphy and Margaret Rudin are among Pitaro's former clients.

But Pitaro, who declined comment, may be known most for helping former District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni overcome Herculean odds to beat a federal bribery rap in 1998.

As for Titus, though he waived extradition, he has yet to hire a Las Vegas attorney in the bizarre murder case, which has piqued the interest of the national media.

"Dateline" and "48 Hours," I'm told, are among the national news shows looking to cover the courtroom proceedings here from the very beginning.

A sensational police arrest warrant, all seven pages of it, linking Titus and Ryan to the death of James also has been providing fodder to bodybuilding Web sites and the national tabloids.

The badly charred body of the 28-year-old James, a former dance instructor, was discovered in the boondocks Dec. 14 in the trunk of a burned-out 2003 Jaguar registered to Ryan.

District Attorney David Roger is well aware of the national attention the case is receiving.

He's assigned one of his most tenacious prosecutors, Robert Daskas, to it.

Let the fireworks begin.

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