In desperate need of sunshine

Oh, to be a fly on the wall during public employee contract negotiations.

Flies are the only members of the public allowed into bargaining sessions. Provided, of course, they can avoid being swatted. Like the taxpayers.

The state and local governments are taking hatchets to their budgets after decades of runaway spending increases. The bulk of that easy money was handed to bargaining groups through generous pay raises, benefit enhancements and other compensation "sweeteners" that can't be sustained through periods of slower revenue growth, let alone the recession that has pummelled Nevada for nearly three years.

So, after years of trying to avoid the problem they helped create, elected officials and government administrators are asking unions to return a little of the generosity that was bestowed upon them during better times. Taxpayers can no longer be expected to provide guaranteed pay raises, guaranteed pensions and guaranteed job security while they are enduring job losses and income reductions.

Governments -- and the taxpayers themselves -- want contract concessions, not service reductions. They want freezes on raises, an end to "cost-of-living" adjustments that have no relation to inflation, and they want pay cuts.

Or so they say. The taxpaying public can't be sure whether the line elected officials are drawing in public carries over to the bargaining table. Nevada law allows government union contract talks to take place in secret.

The citizenry must trust that one group of tax-consuming, government representatives will champion the public's interests in talks with another group of tax-consuming, government representatives. And if they can't agree on how to spend your money, an unelected arbitrator of unknown allegiance makes the call.

Over the years, it has worked out about as well as having the fox guard the henhouse.

Contract talks are under way for new deals that will take effect July 1, most notably the contract for Clark County firefighters. Other bargaining groups with contracts that extend years into the future, including unions representing the school district and other municipal and county workers, have been asked to return to the table and renegotiate to help jurisdictions avoid massive layoffs.

The bargaining process is typically drawn out, with each side presenting initial offers before working toward a middle ground.

Keep in mind that year after year, this "middle ground" has made Southern Nevada's public-sector work force the richest in America.

In all aspects of government, secrecy is a prophylactic that blocks accountability. Confidentiality has let union leaders begin the negotiating process with outlandish demands, then "settle" for lower numbers that still represent big bucks. They wouldn't dare ask for so much, especially in this economy, if the public and the media were privy to their greedy requests.

Imagine what battered business owners and private-sector workers would think if, for example, today's front page carried the banner headline, "Firefighters seek 12 percent COLAs." The public would demand that the management side of the table -- the side that's supposed to answer to elected officials and is expected to look out for taxpayers -- counter with an offer of at least a 12 percent pay cut.

There's no better example of why taxpayers need to be first-hand witnesses to the bargaining process than the 2005 contract negotiations involving Las Vegas police officers. The officers' union, department negotiators and county officials couldn't agree to a deal after nearly a year of talks and went to arbitration. The union wanted a deal that gave officers annual pay raises of between 9.25 percent and 10.25 percent over four years. After much political drama and some serious heat from the county, management finally requested that the annual raises top out, on average, a little north of 9 percent. The arbitrator sided with management, saving taxpayers a mere $13 million a year.

Think about that for a minute. After months and months of bitter negotiations, the officers' union would not be talked any lower than four years of pay raises totaling about 40 percent. What was their initial offer? Fifty percent? Sixty? We'll never know for sure, because no one involved is allowed to publicly discuss the details of the contract talks.

If those meetings were open to the public, neither set of numbers would have been so high.

County firefighters, whose annual compensation in too many cases already totals more than $200,000, have benefited from pay raises even more generous than those given to police. What position might they be taking in current contract talks, and how much more would it cost us? You're not allowed to know -- although the firefighters' union has tipped its hand slightly by firing off nasty letters warning county officials to stop being openly critical of their compensation.

The message is undeniable: shut up and pay us more.

Which brings us back to the flies on the wall. Are public employee unions acknowledging the realities of this recession, or are they asking for still more compensation? And are government managers pushing to cut payroll, or are they rolling over? Some unions, including city bargaining units, have gone public with their offers of reduced pay raises.

A Republican proposal during last month's special legislative session would have forced public-sector collective bargaining to adhere to the state's open meeting law. Not only would the public be provided ample notice of their business, but they could sit in on the negotiations over how to spend their money. It didn't go anywhere this time, but it could be a huge bargaining chip in the 2011 session.

Until then, the flies will have to be our eyes. They won't have a problem finding the negotiations -- they're drawn to the stench.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.