North Las Vegas facing More Cops questions

Earlier this year, the Las Vegas Valley's top cops united in Carson City to tout the successful crime-fighting efforts enabled by a quarter-cent sales tax adopted in 2005, and to ask state lawmakers to approve more money to allow the hiring of even more police officers.

But behind the scenes, police and other officials had begun questioning how one of the five affected cities was managing money raised by the More Cops sales tax, and whether that city had violated the spirit of the original initiative.

The measure stated that the funds could be used only to hire and equip additional police officers, and could not be used to "replace or supplant existing funding" for police departments.

Some believe the city of North Las Vegas, which has received more than $34 million in More Cops funds, has skirted the requirements.

"I'm not an attorney. I don't know whether they are within the letter of the law," said North Las Vegas City Councilman Richard Cherchio. "But I believe they strayed from the intent" of More Cops.

Critics say the city did so in February 2008, when it shifted 32 police officers already on the payroll from positions paid for by its general fund and a separate public safety tax fund known as "Safe Streets 2000" to positions funded by More Cops.

Those critics say such a move improperly replaces existing general funding with More Cops funding.

"We did question that," said Joseph Chronister, assistant chief of police for North Las Vegas. "It causes a public perception issue that could affect us" when trying to get additional More Cops funding in the future.

City management, meanwhile, insists it did nothing wrong, and says the whole controversy stemmed from an administrative mistake.

"The issue is a simple coding error. It's just paperwork," City Manager Gregory Rose said earlier this month.

Funding for those 32 officers, some of whom had been on the force for more than a year, was meant all along to come from More Cops, he said.

Rose's comments came shortly before he announced he would be taking executive leave for 30 days. He would not say why, but said the move had nothing to do with the controversy surrounding More Cops.

A recent city memo about the matter explains that the shift "moved the burden of costs for salaries and benefits" to More Cops. It also says the shift was done with the knowledge of North Las Vegas Police Chief Joseph Forti, a claim he has denied in media accounts.

"It was early 2009 when we became aware of this," Chronister said.

At that time, police had begun asking questions about the program in preparation for going back to the Legislature to ask for a second quarter-cent sales tax to be implemented.

A Feb. 6, 2009, e-mail from the city's budget manager to its finance director concerning the transfer of officers mentions that Forti had raised the issue "last week."

It goes on to explain the transfer was done in part "to shore up" monies in other funds.

The e-mail also mentions that as "new hires," the positions "should have been assigned to the More Cops fund but were erroneously charged" to the other funds.

North Las Vegas employs 312 police officers. More Cops funds 78 of them, including the 32 officers that were shifted there last year. That funding includes salaries, retirement and health insurance expenses, vehicles and other equipment.

The fact that the city has continued to hire additional officers overall proves it has honored the spirit of More Cops, Rose said.

"The intent was for cities to continue adding police officers no matter what," he said. "We think we've done that."

But the city also has ceased authorizing new police officer positions to the general fund, effectively freeing up general fund money to be used elsewhere.

"Hiring out of the general fund was supposed to continue at previous levels," Cherchio said. "The way it looks, they didn't do that."

The city used general fund monies to hire the additional support staffers needed when a city adds police officers, Rose said. "There is much more to policing than just officers. We have added dispatchers, attorneys, warrant officers."

More Cops funds can't be used for those staffers, he said. "You can only use More Cops funds to hire officers that are going to be on the street."

Because of the controversy, state, local and police officials have called for an independent audit of the city's use of More Cops funds. The city plans to comply, Mayor Shari Buck said in a statement.

"I am certain that the City Manager and his staff have complied with all laws governing its (More Cops) use," Buck said. "Still, in an effort to remain above reproach as a community, I will be asking an outside organization to review our expenditures and the use of these funds."

Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, said the city must quickly prove it has spent More Cops money correctly.

"If it doesn't get it done in a timely fashion, my recourse is to ask them to come before the Legislature and explain it," she said. "We're at a time right now when accountability is way more important than ever before."

Kirkpatrick has long questioned why North Las Vegas hasn't hired more police officers with More Cops money.

The city had planned to hire 105 new officers with the funds. Rose blamed plummeting sales tax revenues for the city's inability to fund all of those positions.

The city may have been overly optimistic in its plan for More Cops, Rose said. The city likely will have to supplement More Cops with general fund money in upcoming years simply to sustain it, he said.

Voters narrowly approved the More Cops measure. An advisory question, it initially called for a half-cent increase in the sales tax to pay for an estimated 1,700 new officers among the five police departments in Clark County. It was meant to reduce crime and help the departments keep up with the booming population growth.

The Legislature split the tax in half, requiring that the issue be revisited this year before the second quarter-cent tax was imposed.

A bill to authorize the second quarter-cent sales tax in support of More Cops died in the Legislature this year because of the shaky economy.

The valley's top cops had testified that the first quarter-cent tax funded hundreds of new police officers valleywide and brought crime down across Southern Nevada.

Chronister and others worry the controversy in North Las Vegas could hamper efforts to get that support again in the future.

The upcoming audit hopefully will help straighten out the mess, Chronister said. "We are trying to come together, unite and get this thing worked out. Our ultimate goal is to provide a safe city for the citizens of North Las Vegas."

Review-Journal reporter Brian Haynes contributed to this report. Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.