North Las Vegas officials have only begun to feel police union’s wrath

I'm starting to think the annual holiday party at the city of North Las Vegas is going to be a little chilly this year.

Like other local governments, North Las Vegas is struggling to balance its budget amid flagging revenues. Jobs have been lost or left open. There's no shortage of tension at City Hall, and now city officials are drawing down, rhetorically speaking, on the union that represents North Las Vegas cops.

The hard feelings are so thick, acting City Manager Maryann Ustick and members of the City Council recently tried to oust North Las Vegas Police Officers Association President Terrence McAllister as union liaison. That act generated a lawsuit from the police union, and the war is on.

McAllister, a North Las Vegas native whose mother still lives in the community, is a sergeant who, by contract, works full time for the union at city expense. It's no surprise he's trying to protect wages and benefits of the union's 460 commissioned officers.

City officials have their own priorities. The union and previous city officials have negotiated concessions and give-backs in the past: $4.5 million in 2009, another $1.2 million last year. But with city revenues tanking, $1.8 million more is needed from the cops.

McAllister says the union thought it had an answer when it came up with $2.2 million in contract give-backs, but this time the city determined it wasn't the kind of return needed. Instead, it appears to be focused on shoving out the hard-charging McAllister. From the looks of things, he's not going anywhere.

"They're trying to change the rules as the game's being played," McAllister says.

But the trouble cuts both ways.

City officials and members of the council have only begun to feel the wrath of a union shunned. The warring sides are supposed to negotiate. Instead, they're taking head shots at each other.

McAllister states unequivocally the union has acted in good faith. Now comes the other side. The union plans to make its opinion of city officials' decision-making skills very clear. By way of example, McAllister points to the $150 million North Las Vegas City Hall, currently under construction at a time employees are losing their hours, benefits and even jobs.

"Not only is our city in a terrible fiscal mess, the North Las Vegas City Council has decided to build a
$150 million city hall that makes the Taj Mahal look like a 1960s single-wide mobile home ..." McAllister writes in response to the union's critics.

"Showing absolute disregard for the taxpayers of our city, the North Las Vegas City Council chose instead to approve upgrades and added Brazilian granite for their council offices. Not just any granite would do. In the worst recession ever, city officials decided it had to be Brazilian granite."

Imagine how that will look in a campaign mailer.

Beyond the trailer trash talk, McAllister minced no words when leveling on council members Anita Wood and Richard Cherchio, whom he accuses of grandstanding on the issue instead of trying to reach a consensus. He says Wood purposefully misled the public when she claimed the union hadn't made any concessions.

Will the fallout between the police and City Hall haunt Cherchio's election next spring?

He'll have to carefully balance his roles as fiscal hawk and friend of the department.

Politics being what it is, for many years police and city officials all but held hands during contract negotiations. North Las Vegas was growing rapidly, and tax revenues were flowing in. Those days are over.

Now the city is no longer recognizing McAllister as union liaison.

With all this anger and acrimony, I'm tempted to suggest North Las Vegas officials call a cop.

On second thought, maybe that's not such a good idea right now.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.