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StumbleApproval of Metro Police contract violated new state law
New law mandates a public hearing before an agreement is OK’d
Thursday, May 27, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Steve Sisolak
Sun archives
- Commissioner offers pared Metro budget as example for others (2-25-2010)
- Metro Police Department orders halt to budget increases (1-27-2010)
- Las Vegas mayor calls on city employee unions to reopen contracts (1-7-2010)
- Metro Police union ratifies contract without cost-of-living raises (4-6-2009)
- Police union for civilians OKs more meager wage increase (4-3-2009)
- Those that pay Metro's bills - city, county - might get more say (3-1-2009)
- Second thoughts on second half of tax (2-25-2009)
- Bill to raise sales tax to hire more cops proposed for 2009 session (9-2-2008)
- Police make pitch to voters (9-24-2004)
Beyond the Sun
Metro Police’s Fiscal Affairs Committee signed off Monday on a one-year contract for police officers. In doing so it appears to have broken a new state law that requires a public hearing before public-employee contracts are approved.
“We screwed up,” said Steve Sisolak, one of two Clark County commissioners on the board that oversees the police department’s budget. “I think we have to bring it back for a vote.”
County Counsel Mary-Anne Miller agreed that the committee didn’t include the matter on its agenda or allow time for public comment as now required.
The law, passed by the 2009 Legislature, was one of several changes to collective bargaining sought by Senate Republicans and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce in exchange for supporting a tax hike.
The law states: “any ... collective bargaining agreement or similar agreement between a local government employer and an employee organization must be approved by the governing body of the local government employer at a public hearing.”
Told of this week’s Fiscal Affairs vote, Steven Hill, chairman of the chamber’s state policy task force, said it sounded like a simple oversight.
“The changes put into law were to provide a little more light on the process and provide information so taxpayers have the ability to weigh in,” he said. “I doubt they tried to intentionally violate the law.”
Sheriff Doug Gillespie and other Metro administrators could not be reached for comment.
The chamber has waged a campaign against what it views as excessive public employee compensation and attempted to influence the discussion through a series of studies. By coincidence, it released a report Wednesday making recommendations to local governments on how to implement the 2009 law, addressing in particular another part of the bill that requires local governments to report the fiscal effect of a new union contract.
For example, at Monday’s Fiscal Affairs meeting, Karen Keller, Metro’s executive director of finance, spent about a minute talking about the concessions made by the police union as part of the bargaining agreement.
Hill said the law requires more than that.
“They should go through every section of the contract and tell us if there were changes, whether they had a fiscal impact, and if they did, ‘here are some examples,’ as a way of explaining,” Hill said.
The idea, he said, “is that the media and citizens can look at that information and get a fairly easy-to-understand view of what changed and what are the ramifications.”
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I know everybody is on the anti-union bandwagon now, but here's my question: Why is collective bargaining open to public debate but Wall Street bonuses aren't? And don't say because the public pays their salaries, because the public pays for Wall Street bonuses in a big way.
Read this:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/28/news/eco...
Lawlessness is right. Sisolak sues the county for 23 million and feels entitled now. That is local government equivalent of wall streets bonuses. Sissylak your terrible!
If we all carried guns I guess we wouldn't have to worry about paycuts and Layoffs. More teachers less cops !
"We screwed up " ???? YOU screwed up !!! They knew EXACTLY what they were doing. They need to get a lid on him and the rest of them now.
Where is Rory in all this ??
Isn't Rory the chairman of the commission? Sounds like the media doesn't want to tarnish his name !!
Explain to me why were not living in a Corporate/police state ?
Did he post it on his Facebook page?
Is this guy for real? Does he expect to get a pass? Of course he does!
I say the feds need to step in and clean house at the County Commission (again)and take Metro to task as well. They're all dirty!!! The Fiscal Affairs committee is a joke. Rubber stamp the BS for the Sheriff because every one of these stinky politicians is SCARED of him.
I don't think ther mob ever left Vegas, they just wear khaki now.
http://www5.lasvegasnevada.gov/sirepub/c...
To Rikkorbel,
Reid is not a member of the Fiscal Affairs Committee, which is jointly overseen by the city of Las Vegas and Clark County. Sisolak and Commissioner Larry Brown are the county appointees. The decisions of Fiscal Affairs do NOT go back to the full County Commission for final approval.
First big union contract being negotiated this year basically gets a rubber stamp approval.
Less than a minute of discussion of long term affects of new items in the contract.
Anyone else see the problem here?
It is easy to criticize the fact the Fiscal Affairs Board made a mistake. At least Sisolak is admitting it, and saying they should do it over. Where are the other four members of that board? What do they have to say?
There doesn't seem to be anything intentional. Redo the meeting and vote correctly. At least they admitted it and are not trying to cover it up.
Usually there are at least three or four lawyers representing the City, the County and Metro at these meetings. Am I to assume that none of them spoke up and saw any problem?
I have never seen 3 or 4 attorneys at ANY Fiscal Affairs meeting. They are generally sparsely attended and not much more than a rubber stamp walkthrough. Lots of "staff" there though.
It seems somewhat ironic that the most outspoken of the County Commissioners just "overlooked" the mistake. He seems to know every detail of the "other" contract negotiations. The only reason they are admitting it is because they got caught. Somebody dropped a dime. I say let the criticism fly, after all Sisolak has no problem criticizing everyone else. In fact, it seems to me that he has been SCREAMING at the top of his lungs about the firefighter's contract negotiations process.
We are talking about ratifying a contract for an agency that has a HALF BILLION DOLLAR budget! If you think this should only garner 1 minute of discussion, then I have some land for sale in Louisiana that you might be interested in.
I have just one more question: Did Metro take a flat contract plus an 8% reduction in base pay to avoid layoffs? Well, did they?
"we screwed up'," a simple oversight',oh ok,i believe you,feel free to carry on with the plan of the day commissioners and legal council,regardless of the consequences,i wonder how long i could get that on where i work and am held accountable
Where are all the Sisolak supporters and FF haters? If this would have been about FF there would have been over 100 posts by now.
So the agency with the biggest budget and highest number of employees gets a contract with no wage reduction, no layoffs, and no threats that other workers will lose jobs because of unwillingness to "share the pain" of the current economy????
And back in Feb they state that Metro "is an example for other unions"? Well if that is true, then the FF should get the same exact deal. City FF offer greater concessions than what Metro is getting and they are told "it's not good enough"? Really????? What happened to 8% across the board?
Obviously the Fiscal Affairs board is a joke and needs to be held accountable. Funny how when a politician fails to follow the law its "a simple oversite" but for a taxpaying citizen it's a crime.
Oh wow, really put those cops in their place. Meanwhile, the public had no say in the BILLIONS of bonuses that Wall Street paid out using the PUBLIC's money while returning NO SERVICE. And let's not forget the BILLIONS we are throwing away in the Middle East wars so we can bring FREEDOM to them while we enslave our own citizens. Seriously, how STUPID is the American public?
Where were the Las Vegas Sun's reporters during this?
Whooooooppeeeeeeeeeeeee.... They will still harass and arrest you no matter what the union is doing or not doing for them..........
Nevadans need real leadership in Nevada and it won't come Rory, Brian, Harry, Sue, Montandon, or any of the other party fools that have been running your state into the ground. Wake up stupid sheep and realize that you can not afford four to 6 more years of failed leadership at any level.