Transcript shows not even Metro cops supported sheriff’s ‘More Cops’ plan

For Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, the police union was not an ally when he sought support for a More Cops sales tax initiative to bolster his budget.

That is according to a transcript of the three-day arbitration hearing in September between the Metropolitan Police Department and the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, which represents officers.

The arbitrator favored the union with an award valued at $6.9 million. It includes two 0.75-percent cost-of-living increases, one retroactive to July, the other starting in January. The arbitrator’s award also requires the police department to contribute 13.46 percent more to employee health insurance plans.

The arbitration award has been the subject of much scrutiny in recent weeks, primarily by Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, who raised concerns about the process and questioned whether it followed Nevada law.

Sisolak raised concerns that the two sides agreed on the result beforehand. Or, at best, the department didn’t put its best foot forward in negotiations.

Among his concerns were the lack of written last, best offers from the parties and the arbitrator’s award lacking legally required information such as the reasoning for his decision and its fiscal impact.

Sisolak, also a member of the department’s joint city-county Fiscal Affairs Committee, also questioned why the two sides rejected a panel of seven arbitrators instead of striking names from a list until one remained, a process outlined in law.

Instead the department and union turned to Robert Perkovich, a Chicago arbitrator recommended by the department’s Chicago-area attorney, Robert Smith. The union’s attorneys have said the selection was legal because the parties agreed on the pick.

Sisolak’s questions forced Perkovich to write a “supplemental” award to follow Nevada law, and forced Gillespie to acknowledge he needs to work harder to make the arbitration transparent and to fully brief the Fiscal Affairs Committee.

The transcript wasn’t available when the Fiscal Affairs Committee met on Oct. 28 to discuss the issue, and the Police Department’s public information office declined Monday to release it to the media. But a copy obtained by the Review-Journal shows the union doesn’t support Gillespie’s stated desire for a proposed 0.15-percentage point increase in the sales tax to cover 250 existing officer positions.

Gillespie lobbied the Legislature for the “More Cops” sales tax increase, and lawmakers authorized county commissioners to raise the 8.1 percent sales tax rate by as much as 0.15-percentage points. But commissioners rejected a proposal to raise the tax by the full amount and another for 0.075-percentage points. They will consider a second proposal, for a 0.15-percentage point increase, on Nov. 19.

Chris Collins, executive director of the PPA, said at the arbitration hearing that the union initially supported the measure when it was before the Legislature, but support eroded.

“The initiative changed during the session, and we went from support to nonsupport when we learned that the sheriff’s plan included taking 250 current funded positions and moving them over to the new cops’ tax, which would have eaten the entire tax up,” Collins testified. “Therefore, there would have been no More Cops. We would have had the same cops, paid for with a new tax.”

In his testimony, Collins noted that the bill passed this year gave the sheriff more spending flexibility with the dollars in the existing More Cops account, which since 2005 has held revenue from the voter-approved quarter-cent sales tax. About 520 officers are paid from the funding, which has about $140 million in it.

Some commissioners have urged the sheriff tap the fund to help close a gap in his budget.

In his testimony, Collins said the union doesn’t believe the department should spend that account down to nothing because the tax sunsets in 2025 and its officers will still need to be paid. But, he testified, spending some of the money would “resolve a lot of the problems.”

“Could you take $15 million out of there and plug a gap? You could and probably not hurt the future of the fund,” Collins separately told the Review-Journal in an interview.

Collins stressed that the union would support a sales tax increase if it goes toward hiring more officers.

Gillespie has resisted efforts to tap into the account, saying it’s needed for the future.

“I think those comments by Chris Collins are pretty consistent with what he’s been saying,” Gillespie said Monday. “I think I’ve been pretty clear with the public that I don’t agree with his position on those particular issues.”

The transcript also shows neither side submitted last, best offers in writing, as required by Nevada law.

Instead, the transcript ends without offers exchanged on the record. Both parties went off the record, and then the arbitrator concluded the hearing. The police union and department have acknowledged that exchanging the last, best offers verbally strayed from the law, but defended the rest of the process as lawful. Both maintain the binding award would withstand any legal challenge.

Sisolak remains skeptical, though he acknowledges the arbitrator’s ruling won’t change because of the scrutiny.

“It was kind of like reading a book and they tore out the last chapter and you don’t know how it ended,” Sisolak said.

The transcript also shows that the department surrendered considerable ground in the arbitration.

It initially proposed increasing health insurance contributions by 5.8 percent, while the union sought a 17 percent increase.

They settled at 13.46 percent.

At another point in the arbitration, Collins testified that the department’s morale is flagging.

“We are a morale problem for the sheriff, which, quite honestly, he denies exists,” Collins testified. “But the men and women of this agency are at an all-time low morale. We had 70 people in this room just a week ago who basically said it is the worst times of their careers working here.”

In an interview, Gillespie disagreed with that assessment.

“I think morale is good at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department,” he said.

Contact reporter Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-405-9781. Follow him on Twitter @BenBotkin1.