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Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010 | 11:46 p.m.
Shari Buck
Anita Wood
Sun Coverage
Sun archives
After hours of discussion, the North Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday approved a measure that will cut $5.5 million from the city’s budget this year and about $7.4 million each year thereafter.
The cuts could result in the layoff of as many as 53 full-time and five part-time employees of the North Las Vegas Detention Center. Police department spokesman Tim Bedwell said previously that the cuts would result in the loss of 26 corrections officer positions, 27 civilian positions and five part-time employees.
Mayor Shari Buck was the only council member to vote against the cuts.
The reduction comes weeks after the U.S. Marshals Service announced it would be moving 250 contracted beds from the North Las Vegas Detention Center to a new facility in Pahrump.
The U.S. Marshals contract for $105.96 per bed, per day brought in about $9.7 million to the city each year.
The city doesn’t have the money to make up the difference, Bedwell said, so two towers at the jail will have to be closed. The jail will be reduced from 800 to 500 beds, he said.
More than 100 detention center employees and their friends donned bright orange shirts that read, “Don’t Let Criminals Target Our City” and “Stop the North Las Vegas Bailouts,” during the meeting.
The council chambers were filled to capacity.
The employees protested the cuts, saying their services are vital to the city’s safety.
Detention center employee Daniele Monroe Moreno said the jail is already understaffed. She argued that if cuts are made, judges would have no choice but to give lesser sentences to make more room for detainees.
“I have been here numerous times begging for more officers,” she said. “It’s not a safe environment for me...It’s not a safe environment for my city.”
Pamela Prol, who has been a civilian employee at the center since 1992, said she thought the city was spending wastefully in other areas, such as furnishings for the new City Hall.
“I voted for all of you,” she said. “How many lives are going to be ruined? When there’s not a place to put these guys, they’re back out on the street.”
North Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Stephen J. Dahl said the cuts will send a bad message to criminals.
“There has never been a better time to be a public defender,” he said.
Terrence McAllister, president of the North Las Vegas Police Union, said the police department had already given up a lot, including $6 million in cost of living allowances and benefits. The police force, he said, is 100 officers short.
“The issue on the table is beyond a sacrifice,” he said. “It says no matter how hard we work, [criminals] will walk out the back door as quickly as we walk them in the front.”
McAllister said the union wasn’t using “scare tactics” to influence the vote, but “everyone in this community should be scared” for their safety.
If the money had not been cut from the detention center, Bedwell said, it would have to come from other places, such as patrol officers or other public safety programs.
The reason for the difference between the amount cut and the amount lost from the contract is because the city could not operate the detention center and cut any more than $7.4 million, Bedwell said. The rest of the money will have to be cut from somewhere else, he said.
Councilwoman Anita Wood said the city’s unions will have to give if the city is going to balance its budget.
“At some point, this becomes a police state if all we protect is public safety,” she said, adding that the average salary for public safety workers is more than $100,000 per year. “At some point the bill is due. It is due now.”
The mayor asked council members if they should delay the vote for two weeks. But Councilman Robert Eliason urged the council to vote Wednesday, because each day of delay would cost the city $26,490 in operating costs for the detention center.
Earlier in the evening, the council heard from Joe Cain of the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce on behalf of a nine-member steering committee appointed in June to study the budget. In his presentation, Cain said that if all city employees took a 10 percent pay cut, all of the city’s budget problems would disappear.
City employees in North Las Vegas make an average of more than $100,000 per year in salaries and benefits, which isn’t sustainable, Cain said.
Bedwell said it was unclear Wednesday night how many layoffs would occur as a result of the budget cuts.
The layoffs will be the first in North Las Vegas’ public safety sector. In June, the city laid off 188 other employees.
Rather than take a pay cut, the city employees instead want to sacrifice not only their union brothers and sisters but the safety of the city they supposedly wish to serve.
Again, I say NRS-288 *must* be changed to remove collective bargaining for public employees.
I'm sure state employees would like to see this if only because they are not allowed that benefit and have already taken cut after cut while their local government cousins are in contract negotiations.
NLV Assistant Fire Chief, Michael Parry, was the fifth highest paid gov. employee in NV with a total pay and benefit package of $661,831.54 in 2009. http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/al...
I can maybe understand laying off employees because of a loss of a large revenue contract BUT we are all still staring at the big pink elephant sitting in middle of the City of North Las Vegas City Council. Why are we loosing needed peace officers after we approved a tax to increase the force and the funds were misappropriated? Now that the City Council has approved to layoff 19 officers from an already under staffed jail, the remaining officers will now be forced to work more overtime so that we can look at their salaries online next year and complain about their high salaries and have the City of North Las Vegas Mayor compare her salary to the salary of individuals who serve their community everyday by protecting the citizens of North Las Vegas
Many valuable questions should be asked by state and federal officials. "Were is the $32 million of tax payer money for putting more cops on the street"? Was it misappropriated? What part did former city manager Gregory Rose have in this? Has the city counsel broken any laws, and are they trying to keep it covered up?
The economy is bad right now, however, millions of dollars have vanished. Were is it?
Thank you Billy - Hence, the big pink elephant.
Well, $337,000 is going to Gregory Rose. Remember the previous NLV city manager who "resigned" after he mismanaged/lost MILLIONS of NLV tax dollars? He screwed NLV pretty bad, was basically fired, and is still getting paid much more than I earn.
I just don't understand a group of people who would rather see people laid off, than each take a small pay cut.
So is that really the attitude of the union members, or is it just the position of the union leaders.
Selfish public servants!
Cut the Police, Cut the Oath guards on duty,cut the city Oath personnel in jails, cut all the badges you want, and sooner or latter the free criminals intent on dirty deeds they do for a liveing,will cut us all down.Outsourceing the Jails for less pay,only means the Inmates will run the assylum.
"STOP THE UNIONS...SAVE THE CITIES, STATES, COUNTIES". Once that is accomplished keep the wages at two times the minimum wage except for public safty and make that three times the minimum wage period. Taxes pay all goverement employee's....that is the wage that we the taxpayer should offer and not a dime more. This old wage raise on a percentage should be over. Percentage raises kill the bottom man and makes the top man fat.