Layoffs weighed in North Las Vegas

The city of North Las Vegas couldn't avoid the word any longer: layoffs.

The financially strapped city announced Thursday it might have to cut 273 jobs, beginning as soon as March, to save the additional $33.4 million it needs to make it through fiscal year 2011.

"We have no choice," Acting City Manager Maryann Ustick said during a special City Council meeting called to discuss budget issues.

She called the potential cuts in staff "particularly painful reductions."

The city currently has 1,920 employees. Layoffs would touch most city departments.

The city won't decide which specific "position titles" inside each department will be eliminated until March, Ustick said.

The city, which is dealing with plummeting tax revenues, has undergone five rounds of budget cuts totaling $51 million since December 2008. It has already eliminated or frozen dozens of positions, trimmed departmental budgets, reduced overtime and offered voluntary employee buyouts and furlough days.

"North Las Vegas has one of the most difficult budget situations I have looked at," said Andrew Belknap, regional vice president of Management Partners, a California-based consulting firm that works with government organizations. The firm is consulting for the city on its budget issues.

The job cuts "will essentially push the city back to where it was in 2005," Belknap said. "It's a big step back."

Discussion between City Council members occasionally became heated as they wrangled over cuts during the more than four-hour meeting. Mayor Shari Buck argued passionately against cutting public safety positions.

"My highest priority is public safety," she said. "I think that is our number one responsibility as City Council members."

"We've said all along there are no sacred cows," City Councilwoman Anita Wood said.

Dozens of North Las Vegas police officers and supporters, attended the budget meeting, as they had the regular Wednesday City Council meeting, clad in T-shirts that read, "Your community of choice is only 78% safe."

The North Las Vegas Police Officers Association, which represents almost 500 police and corrections officers, has said the police department is only 78 percent staffed and can't afford more cuts.

The city's three employee unions last year agreed to contract concessions that included cost-of-living deferrals. Savings from those concessions were $8.7 million.

Contact Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.