Friday, January 16, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

UNION LOBBYING: Mayor asks firefighters about pay

Questions lead to change in leave policy

Mayor Oscar Goodman has a hard time understanding why Las Vegas taxpayers pick up the tab when representatives of the city's firefighters union lobby lawmakers.

Word of that practice Thursday, apparently common for decades among local government employee unions, took the mayor and others by surprise and prompted Las Vegas Fire Department officials to modify their leave policy.

"I don't understand why the city would be paying for a firefighter to go up to Carson City when city is the management and the firefighter is representing the union," Goodman said at his Thursday news conference. "It doesn't make any sense to me, but we'll be looking into this."

Goodman's remarks were in response to Review-Journal columnist Jane Ann Morrison's report that Las Vegas Fire Capt. Rusty McAllister was paid his city salary while at the Legislature lobbying for a statewide firefighters union. In addition to paying McAllister for 1,104 hours, most of it while in Carson City, the city shelled out an additional $50,400 in overtime to replace him on the job.

McAllister, a vice president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Nevada, said contrary to suggestions in the column, "I did not lobby on behalf of the city of Las Vegas. I lobbied for the firefighters."

Since the request for McAllister's pay records, Las Vegas has capped at 1,848 the number of hours it will pay union workers who take time off for union business. Previously it was left to Chief David Washington's discretion.

"It gives them (the union) the ability to disperse it as they need," Washington said.

Union officials were puzzled by the response to the report, saying the practice of paying employees while they tend to union business, which sometimes includes lobbying, is a longtime tradition allowed by their contracts.

The Metropolitan Police Department pays the approximately $30-an-hour salary for David Kallas, executive director of the Police Protective Association, and three other officers assigned full-time to the association, according to Kallas. Officer Mick Gillis is the only officer who spends considerable time lobbying the Legislature.

Clark County considers the firefighters union presidency a full-time job and assumes that most, if not all, of the duties will be union-related, said Jim Spinello, the county's assistant director of the Administrative Services Division.

The county also pays the Service International Union Employees president 40 hours of "paid time off" to handle union business, according to Administrative Services Director Don Burnette.

This month, Las Vegas began paying Las Vegas City Employees Association President Tommy Ricketts full-time, about 2,080 hours a year, to tend to union business. Under previous contracts, his time had been divided evenly between his duties as a city carpenter and a union official. Ricketts spent 22 hours at the Legislature during last year's session, he said.

"It wasn't that big of a secret," said John Pappageorge, a former Clark County deputy fire chief who now works as a lobbyist. "There will be those that would disagree, but I think in the long run it's good for everybody."

Union officials said taxpayers benefit from allowing their members to take administrative leave to attend conferences and training workshops that make them better employees. The hours also are used to address grievances with management and negotiate contracts.

And after more than two decades, it's unlikely they would be willing to surrender in future contract negotiations pay while at the Legislature, said Dean Fletcher, head of Las Vegas Firefighters Local 1285.

But investor Knight Allen, a longtime critic of public employee union contracts, said the practice should be banned.

"If they (the unions) want to lobby, then that money should come obviously straight out of pockets of firefighters and not a penny from the taxpayers," he said. "The union is a private corporation. If they want to send them at their own expense, that's OK."

Goodman said he was disappointed the revelation came through the press and not from an internal review at the city. He believes Las Vegas should evaluate the situation and "act on it immediately."

"I think we have a lot of work to do as far as what's happening up there in the Legislature with city employees," the mayor said.

Review-Journal writers Adrienne Packer and Frank Geary contributed to this report.