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Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid speaks to reporters after a news conference detailing his cost cutting proposals for the county Monday, January 4, 2010.
Published Monday, Jan. 4, 2010 | 2:24 p.m.
Updated Monday, Jan. 4, 2010 | 4:25 p.m.
Rory Reid news conference
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Rory Reid apparently was no longer content with waiting for another committee — even one he set up himself — to finalize suggestions for solving the county's budget crisis.
Holding a press conference in the chambers of the Clark County Commission, where he has served since 2002, Reid announced his desire not to study the idea of transferring University Medical Center to another entity, but to look at how the transfer can take place.
That's a huge departure for Reid, the two-time chairman of the county commission, who has expressed worry but also has been content to allow the process of change to evolve without pushing too hard. Now he's pushing.
Some of Reid's suggestions mirror those compiled by the Committee on Community Priorities, which has met some 40 hours over four months examining how the county works. The committee is prioritizing services within the county, a list of which will be presented to the county commission later this month or in early February.
After allowing the committee all that time to work on its suggestions, however, Reid has now leapfrogged over it before allowing it to finish.
"I just felt a sense of urgency," he said.
Aside from examining how UMC is managed and looking at the process for turning the hospital over to a not-for-profit, he talked about the need to talk with the county's employee unions, which represent more than 10,000 workers, about making concessions to help out the county's budget.
In the next fiscal year that begins July 1, the county expects a $126 million deficit. That's on top of this year's $70 million deficit. Much of the deficit is related to the economy, to cuts by the state Legislature, and the financial hemorrhaging of University Medical Center. As the economy has tumbled, the county-run hospital's numbers of non-paying patients has gone up.
The county subsidized the hospital to the tune of $143 million this fiscal year.
At the same time, 65 percent of the county's $1.5 billion general fund budget — that is, the budget funded by tax dollars and not covered by fees or other revenue streams — is eaten up by payroll costs for county workers. Echoing the Committee on Community Priorities' statements released last month, Reid said salaries and compensation have to be addressed because the current pay structure "cannot be sustained."
Over at Las Vegas City Hall, Mayor Oscar Goodman — who may wind up running against Reid in the gubernatorial race — is pushing for 8 percent pay cuts in each of the next two years. Asked after his press conference why he didn't push for something specific like Goodman had, Reid noted that the city had previously said 1 percent salary cuts and now is saying 8 percent.
"I don't want to come out and just throw up a figure," Reid said.
To address labor costs, Reid said he will ask unions to enter contract negotiations "with open minds" and will work with them to work out "sustainable agreements while limiting layoffs."
Union talks with the service employees union and firefighters union begin in a few weeks. He said he would also ask county commissioners to cut their salaries by the same percentages that employees' pay is cut.
Reid hopes the County Commission will be very receptive to ideas for change to be adopted by the Committee on Community Priorities, many of which targeted duplication of function
The process of change begins tomorrow. Reid had an item put on the agenda for Tuesday's County Commission meeting directing commissioners to "discuss proposed reorganizations in the county." It is expected to open up discussion about the possible future of UMC.
"The Citizen's Committee on Community Priorities has discussed several topics," the agenda backup information notes. "The final report should be ready in late January, but due to the county's financial position, immediate implementation of some items may be appropriate."
Commissioner Steve Sisolak applauded Reid not waiting and is particularly eager to make a change at UMC.
"We've got to protect the taxpayers and turn UMC into a nonprofit or a teaching hospital or something other than what it is now. The current model just isn't sustainable," Sisolak said.
He said Reid's other suggestions "are good first steps too. Our labor costs need to be reined in because we can't afford to go on like this. We've got to have meaningful concessions in this next go-round of talks."
Sisolak said he also looks "forward to implementing many of the Committee on Community Priorities' recommendations. Their thoughtfulness and deliberation is something we should all take advantage of."
All of the commissioners except Lawrence Weekly are slated to conduct town hall meetings to get the public's feedback on the committee's recommendations.
Sisolak will conduct the first one, at 6:30 p.m. Monday at South Point casino's Brunswick Room, 9777 Las Vegas Boulevard South.
Commissioner Tom Collins' meeting will be at 6 p.m. Jan. 12 at Cora Coleman Senior Center, 2100 Bonnie Lane.
Reid's meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 13 at Paradise Community Center, 4775 McLeod Drive.
Commissioner Susan Brager's meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at Desert Breeze Community Center, 8275 Spring Mountain Road. Commissioner Larry Brown plans to attend that one as well.
Brown's meeting is to be at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 26 at Mountain Crest Community Center, 4701 N. Durango Road, and Collins plans to attend that one too.
Comprehensive list. There is absolutely duplication of positions within departments. Finance Dept should handle finance - why does every department need a financial analyst to handle budgets?
I would hope that the county also looks at all of the tiered positions. Why is there a grade I, II and II of each position for example? Roll back all of the II's and III's into a generic position title.
Anyone being paid as a lead position with less than 10 people under them should be bumped back down to a grunt position. Eliminate all assistant director positions... Lots of chiefs on staff.....
And how does these cut $165 million?
Work with labor unions to structure sustainable agreements. LOL Who is in charge here the Union or Rory or the people making have the pay paying these outragous salaries and benefits.
The county is like GM - it lived high on the hog for so many years because it could afford to.
The same type of thing is about to happen to local government. Growth has stopped. It probably wont ever be at the breakneck pace it was between 2002-2007. Even if we recovered to a smaller, "sustainable" growth rate it wont cover the cost structures of current government agencies without laying people off in the sectors of government related to growth (planning, inspectors, etc).
The County can either fix it and get it right now, or drag this God-awful process out over the next 10-15 years.
And yes, this probably means higher property taxes too. Think of all those county and cities back east that you probably came from. $5000-7500/yr in property tax for a "normal" home? You better believe its coming. All those owed benefits are in the pipeline now and unless the county were to declare bankruptcy they aren't going to be touched (by either the commission or the unions).
Those who were smart knew that Vegas couldn't keep growing forever. Mountains bound us on all four sides. The idea of topping out at 3.2M people in 2030 seemed so far away, and that the folks in charge today would be long gone by the time the growth stopped and the county had to reevaluate how it raised revenue. By then, the next generation is broke, trying to clean up their elders mess.
This happened back east and in the midwest so many years ago, and now its repeating itself here in Vegas, just a lot sooner than many had predicted.
Blah blah blah..
"Ask employee organizations to enter contract negotiations with open minds" Good luck, the fire fighters already told you to take a hike!
In other words there is no plan, he has no good ideas.. Las Vegas you are screwed.
Nice job Rory. If you would have thought of all this TWO years ago, maybe the county wouldnt be on the brink of bankrupcty now. Please stop talking and take action. Your inaction has now left you with no choice...layoffs. (But dont layoff any of your friends or relatives!)
This could be easily done by just dusting off the 2002 Budget and roll back all salaries to 2002 levels. Next require all contracts to no longer have Cost of living increases. Instead, merit increases are allowed based on % of casino revenue increase. If revenues increase, then gaming taxes increase and then government can pay more for salaries at the same percentage growth. Otherwise, if revenue decreases then salaries decrease.
Want to save money? Disband the unions. All a waste of money - In Government and Auto Industry.
Blah Blah Blah, this man (reed) needs to sit down and get the heck outta the way. Always all talk and no action.
Well listen up reed, we want action, dont come out on tv and spill your thoughts, get more committees. I believe the public has said everything that needs to be said. Just chop, and pray that we can salvage what is left...
Take a play from your Dad's play and just shove down their throats. I guess a Reid can only do that when it comes to spending money. Obviously Rory is afraid of the Unions since he gets campaign financing through them. Bust the unions Rory and fix Nevada's budget problem and you got my vote for Gov.
Enough talk.
Put county functions out to bid, including fire suppression. Think of the millions that could be saved by just letting contractors deliver the services currently done by inflated political contracts with the public employee unions.
The employees unions better get ready or the people of clark county are going to revolt. How can we allow ourselves to be fleeced by the unions without protest.
At what point does "bargaining" become extortion?
BK is the answer. It's legal, it works, and it sticks it to the overpaid union loafers. No negotiations, the Judge is the man, and Steve Ross and his cadre of bums can't do a thing about it.
Sadly, I don't think there is a Reid here with enough cajones to pull it off.
"Reid said he will ask unions to enter contract negotiations "with open minds" "
Who is in charge here! don't ask em, tell em!
Rory's plan basically goes like this - Hi my name is Rory and I have a plan that will fix the mess I created. I will do this by asking the unions to talk ( about my next campaign) , and I will ask the private sector to help ( by paying more taxes).
Good for Rory R for taking on the unions - give him some credit where it's due. Transferring UMC will be a nightmare for the unions.
Time to get with Oscar and the city. There is too much duplication between city of lv services and county...let's start with Fire and Rescue. Do you really need two Human Resources depts...two education and training...just to name a few. This is easy stuff folk...not rocket science. Next let's look at Public Works or whatever you call it here. C'mon county and city board of supervisors...you too can merge and reduce. You be fine...there will be plenty of elected type posts that you can run for next year...besides it will take a year to merge these two huge gov't organizations.
LETS START WITH THOSE THAT HAVE 20 YEARS IN AND PUT THEM OUT TO RETIREMENT, GET THEM OFF THE PAYROLL. I BET YA THAT DROPS IT DOWN TO 1/4 OF THE WORK FORCE LEFT. THEN LETS CHOP 50% FROM THOSE ON SALARY. ABOLISH THE UNIONS, COMBINE DEPARTMENTS, ELIMINATE COMMITTEE'S. CLOSE UMC, LET OTHER FACILITIES ABSORB .....AND YES STOP THE DUPLICATING OF DEPARTMENTS...
If Rory would actually study UMC, before making comments to the public, he would find an organization extremely top-heavy with non union employees in management. Nationally, many companies are examining management structure & salary, with elimination of some of these overly compensated positions. But, Rory finds it easier just to try to persuade the public that the problem at UMC is with the hourly laborer (or union employee). The last survey I saw published indicated that UMC nurses are the lowest paid in the city. Let's publish the management/staff ratio & all of the salaries of UMC employees for the public to view!
Put "fire and rescue services" out to bid. The fat firefighters union which is nearly single handedly bankrupting the county and put their bid in and pray.
Go ahead Sun....continue to write glowing articles about the Reid dynasty. We will done will these fools come November. BTW the Republicans plan is NO...NO to higher taxes, NO to more government, and NO to the statists. I speak for the majority of citizens in this county when I say that our net worth has decreased at least 25% in the last year, our homes have decreased in value at least 50% in the last year and our politicians are talking about 8%? The purpose of government is not to provide jobs for these morons. I have to go because I have to wipe the tears from my eyes!
I am sorry to continue harping but if you take a look at www.transparentnevada.com it will show that clark county alone in nevada paid out over 4 billion in salary in 08. This is where we need to start the chopping block and to merge city and county services. The city and county has so many duplicates that we dont need. Oh but then wait we would have to put more people out of work. Like the top firefighters who made over 600,000 in 08. When do you think the last time was that they went into a fire.
Mr. Ability
I don't hear other republicans because there aren't any. Almost every local official is a democrat.
I don't think that this was a glowing article as misterright indicated, but I do think that the article shows us that he doesn't want to attack the big problems.
Rory shouldn't even consider running for governor if he can't place the needs of the county above the need of self interest and self preservation. I said this before, I will vote for Rory if he hammers the city/union workers and if he can balance the state budget through cuts and not through tax increases. Nevadan's can't handle more tax increase to prop up the over inflated government.
ONE GREID WAS ENOUGH TO SHOW THAT WE DONT NEED ANY MORE!!!GET RID OF SLICK HARRY,AND THINGS MAY START TO TURN AROUND!!!THE APPLE DIDNT FALL TOO FAR FROM THE TREE,AND IF I HAD MY WAY,I WOULD HAVE CHOPPED IT DOWN YEARS AGO!!!!!
well....how about diversification of our tax bases?!?!?! make sense....too many here are victims of scare tactics used by Mr. Reid's father.....Utah will be getting an additional $3M in revenues
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14111447
but hey, look at the BILLIONS we have given up because of irrational fears.....we could have the finest standard of living, greatest education system, etc...if we would only allow nuclear waste to be stored at the test site or wherever as other states do, and benefit from.
we're not so smart, eh?
All of the sudden Rory wants to try and resolve issues with the budget.. Why didnt he start this years ago before all of this got out of hand... Whats the use of having a commitee if you dont wait for what they suggest...Looks like a ploy to dupe the people of Sothern Nevada into thinking he is the man that should lead the state... Wow ,,, what an idiot...I have never voted in my life but I will come election time and vote no to this jackass....I can only imagine what would become of Nevada with him leading the way....
The reason for multiple IT, HR, Maintenance and other departments is because of Management incompetence demonstrated with a centralized environment...nepotism, corruption, hiring buddies and neighbors... these all contribute to a bloated and non-responsive central Clark County government management structure. Why should the employee suffer when the lack of leadership is to blame? All Asst. Directors and above should be booted out and new, qualified ones hired! Especially in Finance!
Well YES I do agree with a lot that say that MOST public employees are way over paid and have good reason to say that.
#1 I was on a VOLUNTEER fire department in Florida for several (about 12) years that got the very highest reports for FIRE PROTECTION in the us, and also got the best rating in the US for response time and SAFTEY TRAINING, even for training in schools. And YES it worked just fine. we only had 2 PAID firemen who were paid a good living wage and it all worked out GREAT. You don't need to pay $150.000.00 a year to get good people to sit in the fire house and play cards.No Iam nit suggesting that Clark County use Volunteers only that they also can and should get GOOD people for a reasonable figure, UNION or no UNION.
#2 I want through the Metro Accademy in Las Vegas as well as in Phoenix, Az. and Orland, Fl. went on many ride alongs and spent a lot of time with police officers and had a oppertunity to personally watch the serious waste of time and materials by the Poilce departments.
I also have a son in law that is a 27 year police officer on the Dallas, TX. police department that has told me about all the waste on that department. He says MILLIONS A YEAR that he knows of.
3# I worked at the Las Vegas Valley Water District for several years as supervisor of one department and for sure know of all the waste as well as how extremely TOP HEAVY it is, 3 to 4 Department Heads where there should be only one, at least 4 to 5 Supervisors where there should be only 1 and how much overpaid most there are, and YES that is a county inity.
Yes I have also been quite sucessful in business for over 40 years of my life so just might know about how many MANAGERS? it should take for how many employees.
Then if you look at the timing of Rory GREID's message and look also look at the article about the investigation showing the HORRER STORY about allowing a lady to sit in ER at UMC them having a breech still born as a direct result you can see why he is SAYING (only saying) that he wants the county to give up UMC. YES MAYBE WE CAN UNDERSTAND some of his reasoning, that is if he can reason at all.
But of course you would't even think that a GREID could tell it as it is would you??
Now have a GREAT DAY themtnman