City: Vital services not affected by cuts

By Jenny Davis

Friday, Oct. 17, 2008 | midnight

Despite city of Las Vegas plans for an additional $20 million budget cut for this year and an estimated $150 million cut over the next five years, officials say vital services like road construction and public safety won't be affected.

"As a local government, we have to guarantee that the central services citizens expect will continue to be delivered on a daily basis," said Councilman Larry Brown. "No police will be off the streets and there will not be shutting down of fire stations."

Instead, city leadership has been assessing what the city can change organizationally to keep impacts on residents to a minimum. During a special City Council meeting Oct. 6, city leaders discussed how to deal with declining revenue. The planned $20 million cut is in addition to $20.6 million cut earlier this year. In total the city will cut about $41.7 million (about 7.5 percent) this fiscal year, which ends at the end of June.

The cuts are needed because the city's primary sources of revenue, sales and other taxes, are down dramatically because of the economic slowdown, Brown said.

The council unanimously voted to eliminate $4.5 million in vacant positions and $1.9 million in non-labor costs, pursue organizational restructuring, phase in fee increases, work with the city's four labor unions to reduce the annual growth in employee pay and delay capital improvement projects that will require additional staffing for one to two years.

The council decided to meet again Dec. 9 to discuss the progress of the restructuring and changes.

Residents don't need to worry that traffic projects will be cut as capital spending is trimmed, Brown said.

"We're still building roads, putting in sewer lines, putting things like stop signs up," Brown said. "The public infrastructure will continue. People will contact me asking if the big road project by their home will be stopped. The answer is `no.'"

The capital projects that will be affected are those that would require hiring additional staff. For example, new community centers in Summerlin will not be built within the next couple of years until the city has the ability to support additional staff or unless the city finds a way to become more efficient, Brown said.

Some of the ways residents will see an impact created by budget cuts is in community centers and delays in graffiti response. The community centers that had lower attendance on Sundays, including Veterans Memorial Leisure Services Center, were closed on Sundays and some community centers' hours of operation were reduced. The city's rapid-response team once cleaned graffiti within 24 hours, but will now probably respond within two to three days, Brown said.

"Delays of services will be minor, but you will see the city doing things a little differently," he said.

Brown said city officials hope to look for more partnership opportunities to save money on community centers. The city is in partnership with the YMCA to run two public community centers, including the Durango Hills Community Center, 3521 N. Durango Drive.

"That has saved millions of dollars for taxpayers while providing a public community center," Brown said. "We are looking for those types of partnerships."

Some of the non-labor cuts include travel expenses for city employees and certain supplies bought on a quarterly basis. The city is also centralizing some departments. For example, the city will no longer have a couple of graphic artists dedicated to one department. All the graphic artists will be in one division.

The last option will be labor cuts, Brown said. Cutting about 40 to 45 existing employees will be examined during the Dec. 3 meeting and in the first quarter of 2009 if not enough money has been saved.

"Labor constitutes 75 to 80 percent of the cost of running City Hall," Brown said. "So if we can't find savings elsewhere, the only other option is a reduction in the workforce."

During the meeting, city leaders also discussed phasing in fee increases over the next several years for things like business licenses and development inspections.

"That will be very minor," Brown said. "Fees like these make up a very mall percentage of revenue generated."