Las Vegas police union makes concessions

Facing a flagging economy and dwindling tax revenues, the union representing Las Vegas' rank-and-file police officers agreed to forgo cost-of-living raises under a tentative deal for a new contract reached late Thursday.

"We tried to do the right thing. Our guys and gals are members of the community first," said Chris Collins, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, which represents more than 2,500 officers with the Metropolitan Police Department.

In exchange for eliminating cost-of-living increases, negotiators with the Police Department, Las Vegas and Clark County agreed to pay all of a 3.5 percentage point increase in required contributions to the state Public Employees' Retirement System, he said.

Employers and employees normally split contributions to the pension fund.

The proposed contract does not change annual step and longevity raises. Officers receive 4 percent step raises each of their first 10 years on the force. Then longevity pay kicks in, starting at 5 percent and increasing a half percent each year to a maximum of 15 percent.

The one-year contract would start July 1 at the expiration of the current four-year contract. The proposal must first be approved by the union membership at a vote in the next three weeks, and the Police Department's Fiscal Affairs Committee, which consists of two Las Vegas City Council members, two county commissioners and a public member.

The one-year contract allows the union to return to the negotiating table in a year and reinstate raises if the economy rebounds, Collins said.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the tentative deal.

During the last contract talks in 2005, negotiators thought they had a deal when they left the bargaining table. But county officials objected, saying raises in salaries and benefits of more than 25 percent, excluding step and longevity increases, over four years was too much.

The County Commission torpedoed the contract by yanking Commissioner Tom Collins, who supported it, off the Fiscal Affairs Committee and replacing him with Commissioner Rory Reid, whose vote killed the proposal.

The contract eventually went to an arbitrator, who picked a county proposal that increased salaries and benefits about 22 percent over four years. That contract included cost-of-living raises of 3.5 percent in the first two years and 3.75 percent in the final two years.

On Friday, Reid noted the changes in the union's stance and the economy from four years ago

"I think they understood, and they wanted to be our partner to get through this difficult time," he said.

Gillespie also praised union negotiators.

"I give them credit for coming into this negotiation with an open mind," he said, noting the speed of the negotiations. "They did in a month what normally takes six."

The sheriff said he hopes to see similar results with the unions representing civilian employee and police supervisors.

The presidents of those unions said Friday that they expected to give up some or all of their cost-of-living raises when contracts are reopened in coming weeks.

Several Las Vegas employee unions have agreed to trim cost-of-living raises, and the county is negotiating with its firefighter and civilian employee unions to make similar concessions.

Gillespie said the tentative police contract was a little higher than he had hoped, but he would find cuts to meet his zero-growth budget. Last month he submitted a $549 million budget to the Fiscal Affairs Committee.

That budget does not include the hiring and equipping of more than 400 new officers hired under the More Cops sales tax initiative because that is treated as a separate pool of money.

Gillespie, who trimmed about $18.6 million from his budget so it would match last year's amount despite employee raises, said he would cut a little more to meet his benchmark.

"I'm sticking to that 0 percent," he said.

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.