County manager takes lead in battle against sick-leave abuse

Clark County Manager Don Burnette isn't waiting for Las Vegas police, the FBI or the attorney general to build a case against errant firefighters suspected of scamming the system and abusing sick leave, costing taxpayers $1.75 million a year.

"At this point, we are taking action against 15 to 20 employees who we believe were involved in the abuse of sick leave," Burnette said in a written statement after I called Wednesday and asked what actions the county has taken.

"Some employees will be required to forfeit the accrual of sick leave time for up to a six-month period, pursuant to the contract, while others will be disciplined and we have not ruled out termination at this point. We take this matter very seriously and are pursuing the most severe actions available to us under the collective bargaining agreement," Burnette wrote.

Several employees being investigated have already left the county, according to Burnette, and are thus no longer subject to discipline.

For example, in the arbitration report settling union contract talks, there is a firefighter described as "the chief abuser" of sick time in 2009. He earned $232,187 that year.

"He took off 48 days of paid sick leave, without ever taking four days in a row, so the Chief could require a certificate of illness. He worked 63 of his 121 scheduled shifts, took 11 days of vacation, and worked 92 shifts of overtime/callback," arbitrator Norman Brand wrote.

That salary matches the 2009 pay of Kelly McNamara, an engineer who is no longer with the fire department.

During his presentation Tuesday to Clark County commissioners, Assistant County Manager Ed Finger cautioned that "the vast majority of e-mails, in my opinion, were circumstantial."

Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak has tapped into the public's wrath and wants any firefighter who scammed the system by exploiting sick leave, overtime and callback pay for financial gain to be prosecuted. Callers have told me they wish he was running for mayor of Las Vegas, but his district doesn't include the city.

Sisolak called upon law enforcement for criminal investigations. But Sheriff Doug Gillespie suggested that to build a case would require the county to do an in-depth audit of three to five years of sick leave. The county estimated that would cost about $200,000.

Sisolak wants law enforcement to use subpoena powers to check phone records and credit card receipts. The question isn't whether someone was sick, but whether there was collusion to boost overtime or callback pay.

Some likely names are already out there courtesy of some 2009 e-mails. Battalion Chief Renee Dillingham, who is still with the department and was paid $250,285 in 2009, wrote an e-mail telling other chiefs not to post the roster with sick leave, because that's the one they should "take home."

In other words, they didn't need to post publicly that sick leave had been pre-scheduled. Some of those may have been legitimate sick days for people with doctor appointments and procedures. How do you separate those out?

Dillingham copied the rosters to other battalion chiefs -- Don O'Shaughnessy, Gregory Cassell, Jeff Tidwell, Jon Klassen, Kenneth Morgan, Roy Session, Scott Webster and Trent Jenkins -- who, at the minimum, knew about the abuse.

Certainly Klassen knew. He wrote one e-mail saying engineers should quit leaving messages in the wee hours that they were placing themselves on sick leave. Calling a real person to say they are sick "doesn't seem to be a huge imposition on the employee that will be earning his regular wage and using the day for his own leisure," Klassen wrote.

If there's a prosecutable case, law enforcement should make an example of a few, if they can.

Until then, county managers are on the right track.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.