Consolidations getting fresh look

Jeff Schonzeit's business, Green Valley Lock and Safe, is in Henderson, but as a locksmith his customer base is the entire Las Vegas Valley, which means he needs at least four business licenses: one each for Henderson, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Clark County.

Locksmith licenses are heavily regulated and require background checks, so there are four of those as well.

"Henderson has about an 18-page application that you have to fill out and go through fingerprinting and a background check," Schonzeit said. "Then you go to Las Vegas and they do their own.

"You have to go through the same thing four times because nobody shares with each other."

But if licensing was uniform, or if licensing departments were consolidated -- one of many options for consolidation local governments have been ordered to study -- it could make that process easier for businesses, although the jury's still out on whether such moves could save money for the taxpayers.

Legislation passed earlier this year requires Clark and Washoe counties and the cities within those counties to study consolidating and reorganizing government services, with a report to the Legislature due Sept. 31, 2010.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has long advocated consolidating local governments as a way of boosting political clout.

He recently spoke of Clark County, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas merging.

"I would like to see that. I've said that all along," Goodman said. "Can you imagine if these entities that I just mentioned -- the county, the city of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas -- were one political subdivision?

"The power that we would have. ... Now, we're competing against each other. Together, I think we would be a real force to contend with."

There are less drastic options.

A city of Las Vegas operations review, for example, cited several areas where services could be combined while leaving existing political divisions in place. Those included fire departments, municipal and justice courts, sanitation, purchasing, building permits, business licensing and parks departments.

Parks, specifically, are an area that should be looked at, said Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, a longtime consolidation advocate.

She also said combined vehicle purchasing could be a good move.

"With the slowdown, growth-wise, it's probably more of an opportunity than we've had," she said. "People recognize that we just can't keep going along as we always have."

Talk about government consolidation is nothing new.

The Legislature tried twice in the 1970s to merge Las Vegas and Clark County. One effort was found unconstitutional, and the second try didn't get the needed voter approval. Giunchigliani tried again, unsuccessfully, as a state legislator.

The Las Vegas Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff's Office merged in 1973.

In 1955, 14 school districts in Clark County combined into one countywide district.

Las Vegas and Clark County share a library district.

Then there's the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Commission, which puts together the area's cities, Clark County and the school district for regional planning on transportation, parks, public safety and other needs.

And Las Vegas, Clark County, Henderson and North Las Vegas are merging their housing authorities into a regional entity.

Consolidation has its champions, and a number of studies have been done on specific instances where benefits were reported.

Supporters point to the potential for better efficiency and lower costs to taxpayers, increased economies of scale, uniform codes and ordinances, more successful economic development because of reduced competition, and a stronger hand with collective bargaining units.

There are just as many potential pitfalls, though, according to research compiled by the city of Las Vegas.

In some cases, service costs have increased, and expected savings were less than expected or erased by the costs of consolidation.

Bargaining units won't accept lower pay, so the highest pay scale of the merged units gets adopted.

And there have been cases in which electoral turnout declines, as does the responsiveness of the governmental entity as it grows in size.

Top city and county staff members are meeting to begin nailing down the procedural details of the report to the Legislature. Any study of merging even just services will need to be thorough, said Brenda Fischer, spokeswoman for the city of North Las Vegas.

"I believe this is the first time that it would be talked about as in depth," she said. "There's all sorts of issues that need to be addressed, all the way down to collective bargaining agreements. It can get quite detailed."

The city of Henderson is starting to look at possible consolidation areas, spokesman Bud Cranor said.

"We're really in the beginning stages. You get down into programs and services, trying to find ways to save more taxpayer dollars," Cranor said.

"Times aren't getting any better, and you've just got to keep looking."

Giunchigliani said any merger efforts should not be top-down dictates, since that tends to create resistance.

"You need to build a partnership," she said. "Otherwise, fear scares everybody and you won't move anything."

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate @reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.