North Las Vegas wants emergency workers to live in city

North Las Vegas is a nice place to visit, but would you want to live there?

When it comes to a majority of the city's firefighters and police, the answer is no.

And it's not even close. In fact, as many North Las Vegas firefighters live out of state as reside in the city. Only eight of 151 North Las Vegas firefighters, less than 5 percent, actually live there.

The police numbers are only better in comparison. Just nine of 46 department supervisors live in the community they serve with 59 of 260 listed as residents of North Las Vegas.

Is North Las Vegas good enough to pay their salaries, but not a good enough place to live?

The phenomenon isn't unique to North Las Vegas. Locally, Clark County has a long, onerous tradition of firefighters living out of state. Across the country, police and firefighters regularly dispatched to poor and struggling communities drive to distant suburbs when their shifts end. But it's precisely those communities that can most use their presence.

As North Las Vegas rises from the canvas after suffering fiscal body blows during the last recession, and after surviving what can politely be described as a boomtown government management style, new leaders are not only practicing economic austerity, but are focused on building something like a sense of unity in the community. For those who buy into the idea that one of the things that the town suffers most from is a withering sense of inferiority, symbols are especially important.

Current city management and Mayor John Lee have embarked on a plan to bring North Las Vegas' first responders back into the community that supports them with excellent salaries and benefits. Given enough time, it just might work.

At least in the near term, police and firefighters appear to be willing to participate in the plan. In May 2014, the city and the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association, which represents rank-and-file cops, agreed to a memorandum of understanding that mandates that officers hired after July 1, 2014, must move into North Las Vegas within six months. Because of the volatile housing market, police already holding mortgages were given special consideration.

A similar provision was included in the working agreement between the city and International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1607, which mandates that all employees hired after July 1 of this year are required to "maintain residency within Clark County, Nevada upon successful completion of their probationary period."

That's not exactly North Las Vegas, but it's not Utah or Idaho, either.

"It was bad policy that made no fiscal sense, which is why we have changed the practice," Lee said. "Our police officers and firefighters are an integral thread in the fabric of our community, and over the past two years we made significant strides to ensure they are neighbors and role models within the community they serve and protect."

Following the agreement with police, 18 new officers now reside within the city limits. That's 18 more cops and corrections officers living in neighborhoods, raising their families, putting their kids in school, and coaching Little League.

In can only help that Police Chief Alex Perez, the city's first Latino in that leadership role, has spent his 20-year career in North Las Vegas and is an Eldorado High graduate. North Las Vegas City Councilman Isaac Barron is another former kid from the neighborhood, too.

Police and firefighters make an enormous contribution to the communities they serve, and like teachers and other public servants, can make an even greater impact by residing in the community they help make safe.

For North Las Vegas, that's a bit of good news.

And, come to think of it, it doesn't hurt the tax base, either.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Contact him at 702 383-0295, or jsmith@reviewjournal.com. Follow him: @jlnevadasmith