DA’s union won’t give in, contract likely heading to arbitration

By Joe Schoenmann

Friday, May 27, 2011 | 5:11 p.m.

The union of Clark County’s prosecutor and county negotiators announced late Friday they couldn't come to a contract agreement.

County staff sent a letter to Pam Weckerly, president of the Clark County Prosecutor’s Association and an attorney in the office of District Attorney David Roger, asking that they seek an arbitrator to pick the best contract offer.

Weckerly couldn't be reached for comment.

Clark County Commission Vice Chairman Steve Sisolak ripped the union as being “out of touch with reality.”

“Not only are they among the highest paid district attorneys in the country, their pay is far, far above that of the average citizen, people who are losing their cars, their homes and living in a world with unemployment at 12 percent. You would hope they would step back and try to understand the situation that everyday people are going through.”

Sources close to the legislative process in Carson City also told the Sun the impasse might give more weight to a move by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce to take away the rights of public attorneys and physicians to collectively bargain. The Chamber wasn't immediately available for comment.

Salaries for attorneys in the District Attorney’s Office became a lightning rod issue in April, too, after Roger initially refused to comply with a county request to cut 9 percent from his budget. Total compensation packages for his district attorneys averaged $165,529 in 2010.

Every county department was asked to find the same cuts, even though county administrators admitted they wouldn't be cutting equally from every department.

In response to his refusal, county staff noted that if the salaries of Roger’s attorneys had increased at the same rate as attorneys in the Public Defenders Office since 2009, he would have had $5.5 million more with which to hire many more attorneys. (Since 2009, prosecutors’ wages and benefits increased 15 percent, while public defenders' compensation fell 1.6 percent.)