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By Dave Toplikar (contact) 
Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 | 12:58 p.m.
Sun Coverage
- Las Vegas to lay off 19 city employees as part of budget cuts (11-18-2009)
- Layoffs on table in dealing with LV budget shortfall (11-17-2009)
- Survey reveals residents’ priorities (11-13-2009)
- Las Vegas officials seek public input on budget cuts (11-6-2009)
- Nevada city, county leaders meet in Henderson for summit (10-15-2009)
- Las Vegas city auditor on the lookout for fraud, waste (10-13-2009)
Related links
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman didn't mince his words about morale among city employees today following Wednesday's announcement that 19 employees would be cut.
"Let's put it this way: Morale can't be good," Goodman said.
The fact that 17 full-time and two part-time city employees are losing their jobs on Jan. 29 because of budget cuts doesn't make for a good work climate, the mayor told reporters today at his weekly news conference.
"Nobody's happy that they guy that they've had a cup of coffee with or a martini with is not going to be here," he said. "No one is happy about this."
"But I would hope that everybody is going to work together and pull the oar in the same way and try to say that concessions have to be made, which would save their colleagues," he said. "That's going to be the next phase of this. And then we'll see what the response is going to be there. If it's a negative response, everybody's on their own and we have to do what we have to do."
The announcements of the cuts was accepted Wednesday night by the City Council, after City Manager Betsy Fretwell outlined the immediate steps that needed to be taken to deal with the drop in revenues from the consolidated tax, which is provided to the city by the state.
Along with cutting those 19 employees, the city also eliminated 54 more positions that had been held vacant as part of a plan to immediately cut $7.8 million from the city's budget for this fiscal year.
"We been working on this for over two years, trying not to reach this point," Goodman said.
Last May, the city anticipated it would see a shortfall in revenue from the consolidated taxes by about $230 million during the next five years. But since that time, the revenue is expected to nosedive another $200 million, Goodman said.
"Nobody ever anticipated that the C-tax would have crumbled the way it's crumbled -- double digits every month. It's just a very unfortunate remarkable thing," he said.
"The monies that we get from the state are just diminishing before our eyes. If they have a special session and they try to take any more from us -- which I hope they wouldn't -- it would be even more of a disaster than it is right now, as far as our employees are concerned."
Asked if there would be more layoffs in 2010, Goodman said he was hoping that city staff would be able to avert that.
Goodman said he was keeping positive. He said that the economy in Las Vegas will improve when the rest of the country regains their spending habits.
"Once they get confidence in their own financial matters in Kansas and Illinois and Ohio and they come out here to Las Vegas, where they're going to have a great vacation because everything's in place, they'll spend money again," he said. "They'll be happy and we'll be happy."
"Once they get confidence in their own financial matters in Kansas and Illinois and Ohio..."
Sorry, Mr. Mayor. We here in Illinois have very nice casinos and you know what - you can actually win Money at them along with getting some nice comps!!! Oh, and have a very nice meal or two in them. And all for the price of a gallon of gas and not the "juice loans" they call air fares these days!!
Good riddance. Ninteen do nothing government dregs on unemployment, wonderful. I wish it were ninteen hundred.
Maybe he could have coughed up some of the money being spent on the not needed new city hall to keep staff memebers.
The Obama administration has agreed to allow Indian Tribes to build casinos on non tribal lands. Contra Costa County just endorsed a tribe to build a $1.5 Billion dollar resort in the Bay Area. Moves like this across the country are going to keep taking visitors from the local area. Remember the poor Indians as Obama finds more ways to spread the wealth.
maybe the mayor can put them to work building the new basketball stadium he's devoting all his attention to, so we can get a professional basketball team!
we may not need it or want it, but it's a whole lot more fun for the mayor than trying to attract out of state businesses, including manufacturing and technology, to try to diversify our one industry economy....
The Mayor appears to be insightful - the morale must be bad. Does that mean he is brilliant or only bright or perhaps beneficent?
People are expendable -- criminal hall of fames are not?
Wouldn't the noble act of a true leader be to eliminate his position first?
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Oscar should be the first to go.
Wouldn't it be more efficient and effective for the City to cut the highest paid individuals first?
There'd be fewer individuals cut relative to the amount of spending saved.
Would probably boost overall morale of those remaining as well
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Poor babies. 19 people get layed off and morale is down. What about people who hold jobs in the provate sector that have seen hundreds of layoffs at each and every casino to the toon of about 9000 jobs all together. Get real.
The Mayor has his Head in the Sand as usual !!! Hey I went to a number of Indian Casinos in other states and you can actually Win some money and have a Great Time very cheaply compared to here , the entertainment was good , food was good , kinda like what the old Las Vegas was like !!!
get rid of some of those $450k fire chiefs
and $350k fire captains.
all they do is sit around the fire house, watch
h.b.o., eat & sleep.
wish i could snag a job like that.
no intelligence required.
How many City employees are there? 19 people seems like a small amount.
I recall the days when fire departments were comprised of volunteers -- you know the good 'ol days when households were typically comprised of a single working member and homemaker - just prior to woman's lib and the ensuing tax boom.
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The latest from the city doesn't go far enough. The majority of people I know that are employed full time in Las Vegas are those in the public sector. The private sector has made drastic cuts. The firm I used to work for had as many as 435 employees at one time, and is now down to 100 - and they are not working more than 32 hours a week. I just can't be sympathetic to the plight of public employees!
better hurry up and get that stadium built, oscar. those $9.00 per hour jobs it will create will cheer everyone up!
can we name the team the "las vegas boondoggle"?
The only problem I have on government layoffs is that because of the damn unions, usually the most productive junior workers are the ones being let go. The long term, less productive, higher paid career employees are untouchables because of the union's flawed seniority system.
Their average salary of $90,000 plus OBSCENE BENEFITS & PENSIONS & "TAKE-ALL-THE-TIME-YOU-WANT to do personal errand on-the-clock, does not make them happy?
Work a hotel buffet line for minimum wage & part-time hours with no benefits AND CAMERAS MONITORING YOUR EVERY MOVE.....
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That was County, not City. Two different government entities. You might want to read the story again. There were two part-time employees that lost their jobs. Part-timers don't make $90K per year.
yeah I guess part time government employees don't make 90k per year.
they have to put in 20 hours of "work" per week to get paid a measly 45K.
Considering Governer Jim Gibbons makes $140,232.61. Look at the payroll for......
City of Las Vegas (3,847 employees)
Includes payroll from: 2007 (2008 is not available)
Average employee cost to taxpayers: $57,743.83
Total cost to taxpayers: $222,140,503.70
Click through listings of employees names and salaries.......(39 pages).
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/20...
Same site lists salaries for the City of Henderson.....(38 pages).
City of Henderson (3,701 employees)
Includes payroll from: 2008
Average employee cost to taxpayers: $48,858.12
Total cost to taxpayers: $180,823,916.94
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/20...
Same site lists salaries for Clark County. (156 pages).
Clark County (15,555 employees)
Includes payroll from: 2008
Average employee cost to taxpayers: $45,943.52
Total cost to taxpayers: $714,651,380.49
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/20...
Same site lists salaries for the State of Nevada. (156 pages).
State of Nevada (20,084 employees)
Includes payroll from: 2008
Average employee cost to taxpayers: $48,136.79
Total cost to taxpayers: $966,779,371.31
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/20...
More information in this site for each county in the State of Nevada, too.
Enjoy.
The flames that this city will burn in will be 10 miles high.
info4you2see: Wow! there is a fire captain (Ganier) that made 650,000 dollars in 2008.
Thanx for the dope.
The mayor says Morale is low? That fat fraud should be impeached. By the size of that payroll I'm in the drizzles now.
40,000 dollars a year for a custodian?
to push a broom and shine brass? maybe it's overtime for all the snow shoveling.
this town got arrogant and bloated during the boom years...most of which was just growth to help support the growth...and that tourist gravy train has stopped.
yes, we'll get a little bump from citycenter, but once the "we gotta go check it out" phase is over, it will be empty.
too many americans are having to chose between car insurance and food. they could care less about flying here to throw their money away in a slot machine.
New city hall...Mob Museum, wonder if they could halt those projects to save those jobs?
Their are so many lies and distortions amongst the above "comments" it truly makes me ill.
Why do republican right-wing nut-jobs hate, hate, hate? Why are they so UGLY? Are your own lives so sad and pathetic that ripping others for sport is the only thing that brings joy to your day? Hell, I'd off myself if I was that ugly. YUK!
Harley
Go back to your cave. It's the 21st Century. Where have you been the last 30 years? It has become a necessity that both Mom and Dad have to work. And what's wrong with the man of the house making dinner and cleaning house once in awhile????? Hope you're not married.
Homemaker....LOLOLOLOLOL!!!! (Reminds me of that old Jack Jones song that every woman on the planet hates: "Hey little girl, comb your hair, fix your makeup --- soon he'll be at the door....")
Mayor Goodman, could you describe the color of the sky or grass while you're at it? Perhaps explain what water feels like, too. Thanks, Captain Obvious.
yeah I guess part time government employees don't make 90k per year.
they have to put in 20 hours of "work" per week to get paid a measly 45K.
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The part-timers I know do work!! And now they are out of a job!!
Anybody know where to look up City of North Las Vegas pay for city workers?
Just wondering why all the people here ranting against government and the employees have not taken a job within the government entities to work at stopping this?
I wonder if 7pesos considers themselves too smart to work for the government since they state "no intelligence required"?
You can't stand outside and complain and expect things to change. Go to work for the government and work yourself in to a position to do something about the "bad gov employees"?
Just wondering............
Just for FYI - I do agree that there is alot of government waste but again you can't change it with the rants here. Also you can not GROUP all the government employees together. Like everything, some makes all look bad in peoples mind.
One needs to ask how posts like this remain on this site. Looking at the numbers the city of Las Vegas with a population of well over 500,000 employs a mear 146 more people than Henderson, a city with less than half the population. Perhaps there is a difference in police and fire protection staffing but these figures are highly suspect. This exposes the shortcomming of the internet. Many people actually believe this stuff.
Considering Governer Jim Gibbons makes $140,232.61. Look at the payroll for......
City of Las Vegas (3,847 employees)
Includes payroll from: 2007 (2008 is not available)
Average employee cost to taxpayers: $57,743.83
Total cost to taxpayers: $222,140,503.70
Click through listings of employees names and salaries.......(39 pages).
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/20......
Same site lists salaries for the City of Henderson.....(38 pages).
City of Henderson (3,701 employees)
Includes payroll from: 2008
Average employee cost to taxpayers: $48,858.12
Total cost to taxpayers: $180,823,916.94
The current city hall sits smack dab in the middle of 20 valuable acres that the city can turn around and sell, putting it in private sector hands that will develop it to its highest and best use, generating more tax revenue to pay for the new city hall, which because it will be new, will cost a lot less to operate. Makes good business sense. Nobody wanted the Clark County Government Center in the early 1990's either. Now look at what's around it.
That's an excellent ideal gratefulone, but even the private sector is not buying...anywhere. I for one absolutely love, love, love downtown but unfortunately, the stigma that has arisen with the downtown area remains.
only 19 ? What did their pen break ? You have a long way to go with these cutbacks...a long way.You can start with FREEZING all promotions,FREEZING all overtime in all departments, FREEZING ALL pay raises and start with PAY CUTS....then when you've done that,then you can lay off even more jobs.Don't make scapegoats of ONLY 19...is that suppose to show you're doing something? Get REAL !!