Insurance deadline helps fuel exodus

Legislation that changes retirement benefits for government workers is having a mixed impact on local governments as the deadline nears for employees to retire or lose access to a taxpayer-funded health insurance program.

After Aug. 29, non-state public retirees no longer will have access to the Public Employee Benefits Program, unless their employer also participates in the program with active employees.

The Nevada Legislature granted access in 2003, and with it, employees with enough years of service received free, or very inexpensive, health insurance. That was changed in 2007 because of concerns that the system was being burdened with too many retirees, while working-age employees stayed in other insurance programs.

The city of Las Vegas now has 147 employees heading for the exits, more than Clark County, Henderson and North Las Vegas put together.

Clark County reported about 60 more retirements than usual this year. Henderson has 44. While not all of those necessarily stem from the health insurance situation, the number is noticeably higher than normal, said Henderson spokeswoman Cindy Herman.

North Las Vegas has 24 employees who are retiring because of the legislative change.

While officials worry about losing experienced workers and institutional knowledge, there's also a silver lining in that the retirements can lead to somewhat lower personnel costs at a time when government budgets are stretched thin.

"You're losing some very tenured employees," said Betsy Fretwell, deputy city manager for the city of Las Vegas. "That's been very tough to absorb."

But, she said, "we've had some time to prepare. We've been able to make sure we can build up skill sets for people who are going to be stepping in."

Clark County isn't worried about the departures, spokesman Dan Kulin said. "That's not an overwhelming number, so the impact is not going to be significant."

Henderson already has taken steps to transfer institutional knowledge from person to person and plan for succession.

The city doesn't plan to have any "extended vacancies," Herman said.

The other entities are taking a wait-and-see approach.

Las Vegas, Clark County and North Las Vegas will review positions to see whether the jobs need to be filled immediately.

"Some will have to be filled," Fretwell said. "Even if you do refill them, oftentimes you're not refilling them at the highest level of pay."

That will be true in other jurisdictions as well.

"Most retirees are at the maximum of the pay grade," said Brenda Fischer, spokeswoman for North Las Vegas.

Still, the governments also incur costs for advertising openings, recruiting and training new hires, and educating workers about the effect of the legislation.

Estimates of any potential savings weren't available.

"There will be some savings," Kulin said, "but it's too early to say what the savings will be."

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