Young plans on just one more term as Clark County sheriff

Dan Kulin

Monday, March 27, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

Clark County Sheriff Bill Young said he's hoping to serve just one more term before leaving law enforcement and elected office for good to work in the private sector.

Of course, Young said that assuming he is re-elected this year, he could still change his mind four years from now. After all, four years ago Young told people he planned to be sheriff for only one four-year term. And, he said, many folks had to talk him into running this year.

However, the sheriff does sound like a man committed to leaving after one more stint as the county's top cop.

"This will be my final term," Young said. "I've got a lot of momentum right now, and I made a big statement with the More Cops Initiative, and now I have to follow through."

Young was the primary force behind the successful effort to raise the sales tax to provide money for additional police officers. Voters approved the More Cops Initiative in November 2004.

Young, who just turned 50, said he's looking forward to a new career, possibly as a consultant on homeland security matters, or a college professor. He also said his experience running the 5,000-employee police force would make him a good top boss at almost any company.

While Young said he loves being sheriff, the high stress and relatively low pay for the job make it one he can't do forever.

"I don't make a lot of money as sheriff, and I'd like to go out and make some money," he said.

The sheriff is paid roughly $135,000 a year, which is almost $10,000 less than Henderson was paying its last police chief.

Metro Police Lt. Ron Williams is expected to run against Young in the coming election.

Some civil liberties advocates are hoping Metro Police will sign off on a coming Las Vegas resolution expected to be critical of the federal Patriot Act, but Young said his police force will not weigh in on the controversial subject.

"Metro's not joining a protest of the Patriot Act. We are neutral on that," Young said. "That would politicize an issue Metro does not need to be involved in."

Representatives of the Nevada ACLU chapter and other groups spoke against the act during a City Council meeting earlier this month. The speakers urged the council to pass a resolution opposing parts of the act.

During that March 15 meeting, Mayor Oscar Goodman said he believed Metro and ACLU representatives largely agreed on what a city resolution should say and suggested the two groups meet to discuss the matter.

But Stan Olsen, executive director of Metro's Office of Intergovernmental Services, said that while he would discuss the matter with others, efforts to get Metro to join in any statement against the act might be misdirected.

As Olsen and later Young said, Metro is not involved in the enforcement of the Patriot Act, and perhaps those opposed to it should direct their concerns to their federal elected officials.

The Patriot Act has drawn intense fire from civil libertarians for infringing on personal freedoms by giving federal investigators broad powers. Eight states and more than 400 local governments, including the Elko city and county governments, as well as Sparks and Silver Springs, have adopted resolutions critical of the act.

The Las Vegas City Council is expected to vote April 19 on a resolution opposing elements of the Patriot Act, which was signed by the president March 9.

The Las Vegas City Council will take its first whack at the budget for the 2006-2007 fiscal year on Monday.

For a seventh consecutive year, the budget includes no property tax increases. But city Finance Director Mark Vincent said that with a new state law limiting increases in taxes, any change in the city tax rate would have no real effect. That's because rising property values alone are pushing tax bills up to the new limit.

The proposed spending plan calls for adding about 70 jobs - mostly firefighters, jail corrections officers, and parks maintenance staff. Another eight positions that have gone unfilled for some time would be eliminated.

The Monday meeting will be the first public workshop on the budget, and there could be another such session before a public hearing and council vote on the budget on May 16.