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Don't blame union for sick leave abuses
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SPECIAL TO THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
As your Clark County firefighters, we are responsible to you, the taxpayer, and, as such, we cannot excuse the behavior of a small number of firefighters who have repeatedly misused sick leave for personal gain. As professionals, we do not approve of such behavior. Anyone misusing sick leave should be punished appropriately.
It is now clear a good deal of this misuse could have been avoided; hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime was paid out while Clark County officials knew of this behavior. They never raised a finger to stop it, nor did they notify union officials this was occurring.
What is clear is county officials have had the tools and ability to police any abuse since 1983. Clark County Firefighters, Local 1908 worked with county officials to make certain those tools were in place. Later, as recently as 2006, our union suggested additional wording, making it even easier to police any such abuse.
You may ask how were things allowed to go this long unaddressed, with the county taxpayers paying money needlessly. You would imagine county administrators would be eager to solve such a problem, that they would approach the union and say, "There is a problem with sick leave use, let's come up with a plan to fix it."
You would imagine with hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million dollars at stake, that would be a priority. Sadly, that meeting never took place. We now know for certain, from the county's own documentation, that no later than July of last year, County Commissioner Steve Sisolak and county administrators knew of a problem, knew a few employees were misusing sick leave and never notified anyone in the union there was an issue.
It is important the public understand that we don't get sick leave reports on our members. We don't see vacation requests or the amounts of overtime paid to individual members. Those reports go to members of the administration, and only someone with knowledge of the staffing patterns could have uncovered such problems.
Firefighters get injured. They lift heavy loads, they work in dark, unsafe conditions.
When they are injured, they can't be returned to work like other employees while they are on the mend.
When a firefighter is injured on the job, his or her diminished capacity endangers the public and other firefighters working alongside. We were not made aware there was a problem.
Clark County administrators were aware. They pulled e-mails showing employees not only abused sick leave, but had also made such plans months in advance.
So the real question is why Commissioner Sisolak and county officials would allow taxpayers to be damaged by this ongoing practice of a few employees, knowing they were essentially throwing away taxpayer dollars?
This is what we would ask of Clark County administrators in the future: If you know of a problem, tell us. Let's work like adults to find a solution. If by working together, we can't find a solution to a legitimate problem, shame on us.
We know this, these sick leave abuses were wrong, committed by a small percentage who tarnished the reputation of those employees left to face the consequences. We promise we will work to bring these sick leave abuses under control.
Ryan Beaman is president of the Clark County Firefighters, Local 1908.
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@ff & scammer...........that all you got ? Seems like the light of truth is on the roaches in the tax trough and they are all running for cover..........this is all tooooooooooooo funny. Hose holders appear to be nothing more than organized crime, stealing from the taxpayers. Nothing more, nothing less.
Mr. Beaman seems to have the same problem as Harry Reid. He only opens his mouth to change feet.
Hire a bunch of Camden, NJ firefighters for half the pay. They would be out here tommorrow
FF AND PROUD, Perhaps instead of correcting peoples online spelling errors you should go hold a hose or something! I would also recommend changing your call name to more accurately reflect the truth, FF AND CLUELESS! Have fun in prison!
The "County Officials" Beaman is talking about are Clark County Fire Officials who came up the ranks doing the same OT scams. These rookie Fire Fighters were taught at the feet of the masters. JAIL TIME!
TAXED OUT... I think you mean wasn't not wasnt. I guess you live in a glass house. Typical from a know it all who has his head up you know where.
Moron Alert! Quit talking Beaman!
wasnt it a union that put in their contract that our elected officials CANNOT do a study to privatize the ambulance and paramedic services ??? The union and hoseholders all know if that happens their scam is over..............overtime abuse, sick leave abuse, call back bs.........most all of it will be gone due to the fact 90% of their calls can be handled easily by the private ambulance companys already in service in the city and county.
But wait, beaman an the boys say NOOOOOOOOOOOOO its not our fault we scam the taxpayers out of millions every year. LMAO , I think this guy forgets what he says and counterdicts himself often.
this is tooooooo funny, looks like beaman is going to throw a few unlucky hoseholders under the bus to save himself.
its everyones fault except the people scamming the system and lining their pockets, depriving the elderly , sick and poor of food and basic necessities. When the AVERAGE hoseholder pay is $180,000.00 in money and benefits, they are ALL in on the scam, just look on transparent nevada what beaman an his daddy scammed from taxpayers in 2009. These hoseholders can point fingers where ever they want to and claim the sky is falling if they dont get their way but the TRUTH is the MAJORITY of our hoseholders appear to have taken part in the sick leave, overtime, call back, sell back............so many scams we probably dont even know about half of them, YET.
The hoseholders of Las Vegas and Clark County have ruined the reputation of ALL government employees.