Las Vegas calls Clark County a deadbeat

Las Vegas has poured a little gas on a long-smoldering fire services dispute with Clark County.

At issue: A decades-old agreement that charges the county for services provided by the Las Vegas Fire Department in pockets of unincorporated county within city limits.

That deal, drawn up in 1985, requires the county to fork over 125 percent of fire district service taxes collected in those county islands — cash Las Vegas says it has never received.

City Council members on Wednesday took no action on a staff report outlining more than $3.7 million city officials say the county owes under the terms of the arrangement. But city leaders did take a pass on a staff proposal to simply write off the payments, leaving open the option of suing if the county refuses to cough up the cash.

"The thing that irritates me is the county has not acted all these years," said Councilman Bob Coffin. "I have watched polite letters flow from us to them, and this is a huge bill. I'm incensed about it. It's time to stop conversing."

Chief Financial Officer Mark Vincent said the city only became aware of the delinquent payments after the International City/County Management Association, or ICMA, completed a 2012 audit of Las Vegas' fire services.

That report suggested the city review and renew its nearly 30-year-old agreement with the county, this time with an eye toward "remuneration in the form of services or payment."

A more recent report authored by Las Vegas-based business advisory firm Applied Analysis found Las Vegas provides a disproportionate share of specialty fire services in those islands, including calls fielded by city hazardous materials and bomb squad teams.

A Sept. 29 letter signed by City Manager Betsy Fretwell and obtained by the Review-Journal echoes language used in the ICMA report, calling on County Manager Don Burnette to either make back payments or hand over equal "county controlled assets or investments." The letter included a detailed invoice, complete with a detachable check, seeking almost $555,000 for last year's services.

County Manager Don Burnette declined to say if he'd be amenable to swapping cash or investment assets to resolve the dispute. He stopped well short of admitting there was any debt to resolve in the first place, explaining only that the county "doesn't necessarily see things the same way as the city."

Burnette also declined to speculate on the chances of reaching a compromise with the city outside of court.

"I'm at a loss as to why this has emerged now," he added. "I'm hopeful we can reach an understanding."

Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown found plenty to read between the lines of the invoice.

He said the fire services bill speaks to the bigger issue of "forced annexations" in the northwest valley, referencing a long-running feud over city efforts to gobble up more than 100 acres of property on county islands between Centennial Parkway and West Oakey Boulevard.

That feud appeared to reach a boil in August after the City Council adopted a controversial ordinance that allows Las Vegas to plow ahead with planned annexations while denying sewer services to county residents unwilling to pay higher city property taxes.

The move prompted criticism from former Commissioner Tom Collins and a lawsuit from two county residents who had sought to tie into the city's sewer system — the only one north of Sahara Avenue and west of Decatur Boulevard.

Brown — a former city councilman who helped author a 2002 agreement that allowed county landowners to tie into city infrastructure without paying higher taxes — led calls for a compromise.

"This is my one hope: That we, the city and the county, can get back to the table and redo the interlocal (agreement) in the northwest part of the valley," he said. "That is what has served city and county residents extremely well.

"Do they feel they need to be compensated? That's a fair public policy discussion."

City leaders plan to further discuss northwest island issues at a meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

Reporter Ben Botkin contributed to this report. James DeHaven can be reached at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Find him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven.