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Wednesday, June 6, 2012 | 5:52 p.m.
Las Vegas officials did something Tuesday rarely seen in public.
After declaring an impasse with the city firefighters union last week, city officials gave the public the chance to see contract terms offered by the city firefighters union and by city negotiators.
Their conclusion: If the city went along with the union’s version of a two-year contract, the city’s expense for firefighters would increase $5.9 million the first year and $6.4 million the second year.
Those millions would result from union-requested wage increases equal to roughly 2.7 percent (about $2.2 million per year); a holiday-pay increase of 1.75 hours ($605,000 per year); an additional four shifts of pay if firefighters use less sick leave (an additional $906,000 annually); medical insurance benefits increase from $360 to $475 per month (an increase of $2.1 million first year and $2.5 million in the second year); and educational benefits amounting to $100,000 per year.
The city’s counter-offer included: no cost-of-living wage increases; a savings by shifting the way overtime is calculated; eliminating longevity pay for new employees and freezing it for current employees; increasing medical insurance benefits to $400 per month instead of $475; and reducing the amount of sick leave that firefighters can sell back to the city by 50 percent.
The city also offered an incentive that hasn’t been seen before in Southern Nevada. It’s called “gain-sharing,” and is akin to profit-sharing in the private sector. It means if the city saves because employees are productive and efficient, a certain amount of the money saved would be given as a bonus among all city employees.
Speaking to the dire finances facing Las Vegas, whose tax revenues have fallen like all Nevada municipalities during the recession, Councilman Bob Beers said the city’s offer was a reflection of the times. And if the union and city turned to arbitration, and if the union won, the city’s alternative might be layoffs.
“As we’re seeing now with North Las Vegas’ drama, and in the school district, when the union wins that arbitrated cost-of-living increase at a time when government has been flat for a period of time … you may have to lay off people,” said Beers, who was endorsed by the firefighters union. “There’s only so much money to go around.”
The fire fighters have no public support on this issue. The appear disconnected and out of touch with what others in this state are going through.
It's time to trim costs, no grant raises.
How about no raises and no givebacks until the cities/counties revenues exceed its expenses by at least 3%?
Then any cost of living raises should be limited to what the federal COL formula specifies and increases beyond that must be performance justified with public revue.
They are Over Paid,,,,Fire all of them ,,,Then hire new people that would work 5 days a week ,,, 8 hours a day ...and get paid $50,000 a year ,,, The Well is Dry !!!
This is a betting town, right? The firegighters union should simply offer to increase the contract by 1 dollar for every 1 dollar LOST by the mob museum. Odds are the city is going to lose a hell of a lot more than 12 million on Oscar's Shrine. I mean, If the city has money to waste.....than they have money to waste. Know what I'm sayin' Vern? BTW, Any layoffs planned for the Mob Museum?
How about a negative COLA at about 50% of their wage! Because housing is 50% less than it used to be!
They use the excuse how expensive housing is on the way up, but they sure don't want to ride it down do they ?
I cannot believe the gaul of the union to be asking for expanded pay and benefits when the tax payers who would be on the hook for it are seeing their pay and benefits shrink. Its a slap in the face. I believe that we already pay them a fair living wage.
It is about time! Instead of just throwing our tax dollars around like Monopoly money, transparent and real-world negotiations are due. The union seems to come to the table like they're buying a used car; how about an offer that rightfully considers the city's economic situation and the impact on us taxpayers!
Can't we just privatize these services?
Where is the NEGATIVE COLA? Lets get the pay package back down to (national)averages for firefighters, and then down to something comparable to LOCAL COL and local pay rates.
Brass: no compensation based on revenues--just means tax increase after fax increase.
Gainsharing and Public Safety. That could be a very interesting combination that has the potential to end in disaster.
So a FF comes to work sick (to help reduce overtime costs from a replacement), then a major fire occurs, and because of the illness, the FF cannot perform at 100%, so another FF is injured. Now the costs of the injury far exceed the overtime savings. Is the entire department then penalized due to the increased costs of the injury?
Would this "gainsharing" not affect all FF's decisions of risk if it were to have the potential to cost them money? Would the community suffer from increased insurance costs if buildings were just allowed to burn to the ground rather than take the risk of fighting the fire?
I am not a FF, just a taxpayer, and this does not appear to be good public policy.
These guys are still grossly overpaid. I say that this function should be turned over to a private company. They just do not deserve any pay increases and should be happy to have a job with incredible benefits.
Why is a county reporter doing a story on the city, that's right it bashes the fire dept., nothing in the news about the water distric getting a multi year contract with cost of living raises, or the health department getting a multi year contract with cost of living raises also, both of those are over scene by the county commission, but let's drive the police and fire department more and more into the ground for someone's agenda.
In a city of roughly 4 Million, that 2year contract sounds like a pretty cheap deal for the city take it and be quiet about it, it'll all work out!!
What a joke but I'm not laughing. These people are SO over-paid to begin with and now want MORE?? Get rid of them all - hire twice as many for half the price - it's a win-win as it will certainly help our States' budget as well as the States' unemployment numbers. Time to bid farewell to the biggest freeloaders of them all - firefighters! Ask any of these clowns how many fires they actually put out in a years time....
The public should be able to see the details of EVERY contract the city and county enter into BEFORE it gets passed. That way we can see who the union shills are and vote them out of office.
Arbitration needs to be removed from all public employee contracts as well, the politicians answer to the TAXPAYER not some arbitrator.
Are you starting to get the message yet politicians? Or do we need to resort to what they did in Wisconsin?
People hate firemen in San Jose just as much as they do in LV (San Jose? the home of Cisco?). This article appeared in the WSJ. One fireman says people make obscene gestures at his fire truck. Cops and firemen are very visible signs of the city's budget problems because they earn the highest pensions. Voters passed a measure to rein in pension costs in San Jose on Tues, and this is the sign of a new push to get tough on public unions.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...
A 50% REDUCTION in compensation would be a good place to start negotiations on a new contract. I'm guessing city FF's make about the same as the county so that would give them average annual compensation of $90,000...still overpaid but at least more in line with many other departments in the country.
how about this. no COL,period. only 2 weeks paid vacation a year. recalculate how overtime is paid.
2 weeks paid sick leave (if more than 3days concurrent are used at one time, a doctors referral is required, no docotr note no pay. any unused sick time is LOST and the city will NOT buy it back. a maximun of 4 ot payrate callbacks per month per employee(which would reduce the amount of gaming the system). and no pay raise. in fact how about giving them the national averag for other big cities (which is substantially lower than than LV). if the fireman union doesnt agree then dont renew the contract. lets outsource it.
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. and no im not anti union im actually for unions. but the firemans union here in LV is WAY OUT OF CONTROL.
why are these negotiations "secret" in the first place--this is taxpayer money and why not put each contract on the newspaper for every taxpayer to see out in the open---why all the hush hush all these years---we know why---so you can give huge wage increases and benefit increases and receive votes
Here's an idea...why doesn't the FF union propose a BUSINESS TAX!?! Maybe they can piggy back with the CCSD and get those slacker businesses to pay their "fair share"...because what's more fair than raising the already egregious and outrageous firefighter compensation?
I live right down the street from a Clark Country firefighter - in a months' time I'd say he's home 90% of the time - no lie - and for this, according to transparentnevada.com he's making in excess of over $250,000 w/benefits....all I gotta say is where do I apply for a job like that???
I also want to know when this guy has time to play with all his 'toys'....his 3 huge trucks, his big boat, his 200,000 +RV.... get the picture yet?
Although this may show a reduction in unwarranted giveaways, it still includes too many add on's that make the contract look like one negotiated with a private sector union during good times, when there is a labor shortage and a company is desperate to retain senior workers in order to make a profit. The effort to save the city money, for example, should not need to be incentivized with bonuses. The prudent use of sick leave should be expected, especially as municipalities struggle to pay their bills and avoid layoffs. I suppose it might seem hard to imagine dinner without a shrimp cocktail, folks, but some of us are eating beans.
If they (FF's) don't want to negotiate in good faith with "zero-based" contracting, let's START OVER. Generate a NEW JOB DESCRIPTION and hire new employees. Then, eliminate the old jobs and RIF the current employees. And if it's in the contract that we can't hire anyone else to fight fires...just wait until the contract EXPIRES.
There is no money left in the bucket. When I pull my pockets inside out, no change falls to the ground. It is time for the Fire Fighters to have their pay frozen. They do a great job for the people of the city but, the people of the city have fallen behind. All government employees need to accept that and take no pay raises.
These people have such a sweet job and they still want more and more. We could get just as experienced people from other areas for much cheaper. Our valley firefighters are overpaid and have egos that match. They really don't seem to appreciate it.
The flipside is that our politicians are letting us down too. They agreed to these deals for years to get it to this point. Now they are still playing around instead of drawing the line. I am still waiting for the firings of county firefighters and their supervisors for commiting fraud against the county. What happened there? I think one guy got fired. That's ridiculous. The brass should have at least been cleaned out for letting the fraud happen.
Not with my money please
Re Urbano Ornelas. The population of the CITY of Las Vegas, based on 2010 census figures was 583,756 people. The population of the LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN AREA based on 2010 census figures was 1,951,269 people. Hardly 4 million folks is it.