Salaries, benefits weigh on county, must be reduced, review panel says

To save money, Clark County needs to take a long, hard look at the "unsustainable" salaries and benefits being paid to county workers, a review panel suggests.

That is one of the main ideas being considered by the Citizens Committee on Community Priorities, which is wrapping up work on ways the County Commission can plug a huge budget hole caused by the faltering economy.

The panel is scheduled to meet Jan. 7 to make final recommendations on how best to fill this year's $60.7 million hole, which is projected to be $108.7 million in the next budget year.

The 15-page preliminary report's language on compensation singles out firefighter pay as "outrageous."

"The only way to truly cut costs in a General Fund of $1.5 billion when the payroll (is) over $1.2 billion is to cut staff, hours, salaries and/or benefits," one of the suggestions said. "The rise in employee compensation is unsustainable."

The report also suggests several options for the money-losing University Medical Center, the valley's public hospital, and giving the county more control over setting several fees.

The Fire Department is the subject of many of the suggestions, which include reducing pay and benefits, reducing overtime, creating a "brownout" plan showing which areas would get less service if cuts aren't made and possibly ordering a study looking at consolidating all fire departments valleywide.

If that's done, the report said, "legislation should be enacted that does not require the most lucrative contract to be the new contract."

Firefighters were singled out for their pay and benefits: "$180,000 compensation (wages+benefits) for the average employee is outrageous, even outside this economic downturn," the report said.

That figure is dated: Average firefighter compensation in 2008 was $199,678.

County leaders should be prepared to fight the firefighters union on the topic, even to the point of reducing fire services, the report said.

If "significant wage concessions" aren't agreed to, "commissioners should determine which taxpayers would experience (an increase) in response time from the 'brown out' and discuss these directly with them prior to implementing," the report said.

The panel suggested studying the possibility of eliminating the paramedic portion of Fire Department services, with private ambulances picking up the work.

The report contained several suggestions for UMC, which the report described as "a drain on county resources."

The county could sell or lease the hospital to another party or transfer it to a nonprofit foundation or at least review hospital costs and operations to look for efficiencies and ways to increase revenue, the report said.

But one option describes the hospital as "a cornerstone" of local health care that should not be sold.

The rest of the recommendations run from closing satellite offices and consolidating departments to offering more services online and increasing fees for document recording, business licensing, parks and recreation, and animal control.

Among the other ideas are the following:

• Applying cuts evenly across the board to include court functions.

• Charging parents or youngsters for juvenile probation and intake services.

• Amending state law to allow labor contracts to be reopened "when a severe financial emergency exists."

• Asking the Legislature to allow the county to create or raise fees or give the county home rule in financial matters.

• Performing a study comparing county salaries with the public sector.

• Using a local index for cost-of-living adjustments.

• Ending the practice of selling back sick leave.

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.