County approves Rory Reid’s budget overhaul

By Joe Schoenmann

Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010 | 3:24 p.m.

The privatization of University Medical Center now appears to be a given. The only question is what form it will take.

County Commissioners voted 5-2 today in favor of moving toward the change for UMC and the other budget moves proposed by Commission Chairman Rory Reid. Commissioners Lawrence Weekly and Chris Giunchigliani voted against the plan.

As part of the overhaul, county staff was ordered to return to the board with information about the legalities, expenses and other factors associated with transferring the financially beleaguered county hospital to a private entity.

"Whatever form that takes, that's a long way from being decided," Reid said.

What Reid ultimately wants, he said, is a set schedule with benchmarks for such a transfer, so that commissioners and county staff will be able to follow progress on turning the hospital over to a not-for-profit or selling it.

Reid called the vote a "watershed moment" with the commission, which is made up of seven members of the Democratic Party. With more than 3,500 union employees at University Medical Center, the board's vote has not been assured because Democrats typically fall in line with union desires.

But as part of his motion, Reid stressed the need to include union members in the process and to keep it open to the public. He pushed for it now, he said, because the financial needs of the hospital are so dire. In the last year, taxpayers subsidized the hospital with $140 million.

Reid's motion also forces county staff to speed along some $300 million in various types of projects not funded by taxpayers, but with "non-discretionary" dollars. Some of that money, for instance, comes from the sale of public lands that is collected under a plan called the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.

"We need to do what we can to create jobs," Reid said after the meeting.

The board also voted to eliminate or demote 23 management jobs.

Don Burnette, chief administrative officer, said it was unclear which jobs would be eliminated and which ones would be lowered. But he said that employees targeted for demotion would be given the option to take the demotion or to lose their jobs.

During the meeting, County Manager Virginia Valentine said the county was already lean when it comes to managers. They hold 182 positions, or

2.8 percent of the county's workforce.

Still more cuts will be on the way as the county also looks to consolidate administrative functions. County commissioners were also provided with a list of 224 positions in human resources, finance, public information, and information technology spread over 33 departments (The Metro Police department is excluded.) Many of those positions are very likely to be eliminated via consolidation.