Sunday, January 18, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Union lobbying on the taxpayers

The Wendell Williams double-dipping scandal is the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks to a tip from an anonymous firefighter, Review-Journal columnist Jane Ann Morrison reported on a long-standing Las Vegas city policy that allows firefighters to lobby the Legislature for better pay and benefits ... all at taxpayer expense.

And there's more. The contract between the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and its union establishes four, full-time jobs at union headquarters for cops, who aren't paid with union dues but instead earn tax-financed salaries and, presumably, benefits under PERS.

During the 2003 legislative session, Las Vegas Fire Capt. Rusty McAllister was paid for 1,104 hours of union-related work -- much of it for activities in Carson City -- and the city had to pay more than $50,000 in overtime to cover the time he was away from his post.

Those involved are trying to wash their hands of all this, blaming "the contracts" -- as if individual human beings didn't negotiate and approve these documents -- or saying the officers involved weren't lobbying directly for their agencies but for their "members."

But we all know double-talk when we hear it. And Mayor Oscar Goodman has vowed to rein in the practice of using tax dollars to pay employees to lobby for their unions, where they quite plausibly advocate changes in policies that are contrary to the city's financial interests.

The city could immediately cut off the spigot of tax money without violating the contract with the firefighters' union. After all, the contract states that, "Whenever department strength permits, Union officials ... can be granted leave with or without pay" to conduct union business. There's no obligation to pay firefighters while they're away from their jobs -- or to let them take time off when staffing is short.

Simply put, it would be permissible right now for the city to insist that any time a union official wants to lobby at the Legislature, fine. But the union representative would have to do so on his own time ... and make sure his shifts are covered by people who aren't logging overtime.

And if the union wants to squawk, well, it's always possible to renegotiate that contract -- with the intention of taking a meat-ax to this, and other tax-funded freebies, as well.