Firefighters contract stalls; city lays off more workers

Las Vegas started informing more employees Thursday that they will be laid off, and it appears City Council members will not approve a new labor contract with the Fire Department that was expected to save $2.7 million.

Mayor Oscar Goodman said the number of layoffs, once pegged at around 145, will now exceed 200. No firefighters will be laid off.

City officials said they will not say which departments will be affected until next week, when the notifications will be complete.

Firefighters in IAFF Local 1285 offered a new contract that amounted to an estimated 3 percent cut, Goodman said. While the City Council hasn't formally rejected it yet, they are expected to do so at a meeting next week to approve the city's 2011 budget.

"The sense was yesterday that it just wasn't enough," Goodman said.

The vast majority of the city's layoffs will come from the Las Vegas City Employees Association, which represents general city workers and is the city's largest union. Union President Don King said the layoffs include about 180 of his members.

"It's been a moving number, but that's the best information that I have," King said.

The city recently came up with another concession offer and the association made a counteroffer, King said. He declined to discuss specifics since his members haven't been fully briefed on it and he's not sure if the city will accept it.

"I'm sort of waiting to see if the city's going to respond at this point," he said.

Chris Collins, executive director of the Police Protective Association, said he didn't know how many of the city marshals he represents will be laid off. The marshals have been spared layoffs so far.

"I have not heard anything official from the city at all," Collins said. "What their plan is, I don't know."

Tracey Valenzuela, president of the Las Vegas Peace Officers Association, said she had not yet heard how the layoffs would affect her members, who are the city's corrections officers.

Las Vegas is forecasting an $80 million shortfall in the 2011 budget year and a $50 million hole in 2012.

The city has already cut costs and will look to reserves for some of the deficit, but officials wanted city employees to give up all raises and accept 8 percent pay cuts in the next two years to help make ends meet and avoid layoffs.

Every bargaining unit except the police officers union offered plans that provided some savings, but not as much as the city wanted.

City Council members met to discuss the firefighters' proposal Wednesday afternoon in a closed-door session that was a continuation of their May 5 meeting.

Goodman and union President Dean Fletcher said the two sides will continue to talk.

"We'll try to see if they are still willing to sit down and see if there's a fine tuning of it," Fletcher said. "We trusted their word that they had a deal. Everybody was in the room and everybody was happy."

The proposal included eliminating a cost-of-living raise, deferring a uniform allowance and reducing health insurance contributions next year, as well as adding more roving firefighter positions to reduce overtime. It also would have established a lower pay scale for new firefighter hires.

It was projected to save $2.7 million. The city originally set out to trim $8.8 million from the firefighter budget.

The original group of laid-off employees have already been notified and will end employment at the city on June 12, city spokesman David Riggleman said.

The newly laid-off workers will stay on until July 16.

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