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Jane Ann Morrison
Firefighters' sick-leave theater makes you laugh until you cry
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Curled up with popcorn, I watched the best show in town, a recording of the Clark County Commission meeting Tuesday, which turned out to be a drama and a comedy.
The drama was watching Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak eviscerate Ryan Beaman, president of the Clark County Firefighters, Local 1908. The commissioner used Beaman's own words to make the firefighter's top contract negotiator look like the master of deceit.
Throughout 2010, Beaman told the news media there was no abuse of sick leave by county firefighters. Then, after that was proven, why, it was just a few wrongdoers.
Beaman's version crumbled into ashes when Assistant County Manager Ed Finger laid it all out to the commissioners.
Finger said most of the stats he presented had been shared with the union in March when arbitration began. During arbitration, the excesses of 18 firefighters were detailed.
Yet in September, Beaman still was telling a radio audience he "had not seen any proof of sick leave abuse" and it was up to management or the fire chief to investigate.
Sisolak noted that, only after compromising e-mails came out, did Beaman change his tune, admitting there were a few bad apples and they should be punished.
As recently as Sunday in the Review-Journal, Beaman wrote it was "a small number of firefighters who have repeatedly misused sick leave for personal gain." He blamed county officials and top-ranking fire officials and the county commissioners.
On Monday, Beaman said, "The county should have shared information on misuse of sick leave when they discovered it."
At least a few Clark County firefighters and supervisors are dumb bums. They were stupid enough to put their cheatin' ways in e-mails, and some supervisors answered via e-mail, proving there was collusion.
Sisolak asked federal and local officials to investigate, and the FBI and the district attorney's office are both looking into whether abusing sick leave constitutes a crime.
Nearly 40 percent of the firefighters took more than a month of sick leave in 2009. Obviously, some of them took the time for legitimate reasons. They were sick. Their contract also allows them to take time off when immediate family members are sick.
But not to extend a vacation.
The worst offenders appeared to be veterans with 25 to 30 years with the Fire Department. They were also the ones racking up the most overtime through callbacks, which increased their pension payments from the Public Employees Retirement System. They're the bums who were cheating the system, using contract rules to enrich their golden years.
One firefighter took 924 hours of sick leave, and 1,455 hours of overtime and callbacks, earning $195,000. Another claimed sick leave for 4½ months, yet worked 2,223 hours overtime, earning $232,187. This was one of the bums who put his misdeeds in an e-mail.
Near the end, the show turned riotously funny, when Beaman became humble and said in the next round of contract negotiations, if both sides "would be honest and upright and forthright with issues, it would definitely be helpful." Nearly choked on my popcorn laughing.
Firefighters head into the next contract negotiation with little credibility and little respect from a public outraged by the behavior of a too large minority.
County Manager Don Burnette said he was unable to obtain a provision in the contract approved Tuesday that would make it easier to discipline firefighters who abuse sick leave. Guess there won't be a problem inserting that in the next contract.
The public thinks this is a disgrace. The public is right.
The county, however, should look for administrative and civil remedies rather than wait for some criminal action. That would be faster, and more likely to succeed.
Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.
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The official unofficial name for those employees of the municipalities that work out of Fire Stations should be.."Often sick, grocery shopping, accident responders..." In NLV we will ad "..Ambulance drivers...".
While everyone vents their anger at the firefighters they are missing the real gangster in this scam. Firefighters were doing what they could to make a buck, unscruplious, but...what are ya gonna do?
The county Commissioners that sat in on the contract negoiations, signed off on the final draft, those are the real GANGSTERS.
We need more County Commissioners like Steve Sisolak!! Those like Tom Collins and Chris Guinchigliani, who blindly support the unions and refuse to speak out against corruption (until the proof is staring them in the face) need to be replaced. Thank you Steve Sisolak for doing the job you were elected to do.
I almost spit out my popcorn laughing when I heard that the crazy old lady was let out of the asylum again to write her make believe articles. Like the time she swears she heard from another old kook at the buffet line in the Alzheimers ward of Sunny Acres that firetrucks were going door to door making old people sign petitions and that she is constantly being followed by a black helicopter. Did you ever apologize for that one Jannie? Or is it too hard for you to tell night from day when you are that close, blowing smoke up Michelle Obama?
All the firemen that retired in the last 10 years should have their retirement looked at, I'm sure there are a few ripping off PERS and the tax payers.
One of my first impressions of LV was that there was alot of money to be made here..if you were willing to rip someone off... I still stand by that assessment...are there any honest and ethical people in this town? I am coming to find the true extent of the 'Sin City' title...
How come the cops immediately furnish the names of rule breakers? Can we expect the same from the Fire Dept?
They should investigate the police department for paying officers when they were so far away from the area they were supposed to be patrolling and keeping safe, without authorization. How many other officers leave their beats without authorization?
There seems to be a failure in the policies that allow these things to happen and a failure by the Chiefs to carefully monitor these situations and to discipline the offenders. The offenders are essentially robbers, robbing law abiding tax payers, and they should be put in jail like all the other robbers who get caught.
I would agree with the poster below who says this is "only the tip of the iceberg." There is widespread abuse of the workers compensation system too. For instance, there is a Nevada Revised Statute that says if a police officer with heart disease can prove that job-related stress caused the problems they can get a larger pension benefit. While I understand that doctors have obligations and ethics, in this day and age a stack of $100 bills untraced can buy you a bigger pension. There's plenty of low-hanging fruit here if some enterprising journalist wants to do some shoe-leather reporting.
Will anyone take the fall for this?
Here's what we are really headed for. . .NV PERS will go belly up and all of the current State and County employees that have paid into it for years will be left out in the cold with no retirement, the PBGC will have to bail it out and the retirement that people thought they had will be pennies on the dollar. The Scamsters with the Fire Department that are scheming to inflate thier last few years of pay will be to plame. Making over 200K a year to be a fireman. Say it out loud. It does not make sense. What the hell planet are we living on? Ultimately, Clark County needs to seek bankruptcy protection for government entities, and let a trustee rip up the current contracts and rewrite them at the same level as social workers, parks and rec, and secretaries. See how the fire department likes that. . .