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EDITORIAL
Public business: What are the offers?
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Yet another promise to bring Clark County's nasty contract negotiations with unionized firefighters into the sunshine has been broken, keeping taxpayers in the dark about how each side proposes to spend the public's money.
The breach makes it clear that there's only one way to change a process with no accountability, no good will and no way for citizens to participate or defend their interests: change the state's collective bargaining laws.
Back in August, when the International Association of Firefighters Local 1908 declared an impasse with the county, union President Ryan Beaman declared he would make his last, best offer available for public inspection, and he called out the county to do the same.
Monday was the deadline for the union and the county to present their final offers to an arbitrator, the unelected, largely invisible individual charged with settling the matter by picking one proposal or the other. By Monday night, neither side had released its proposal.
Mr. Beaman's excuse: "The statute does not provide for making the final offers public at this time, nor did the parties agree to do so at the conclusion of the hearing." Never mind that while the statue doesn't explicitly require it, there's nothing in the law's language to prevent the release of contract proposals. Mr. Beaman's refusal to honor his own word doesn't inspire confidence that he's interested in saving the county some money.
The response from new County Manager Don Burnette, the county's lead negotiator: "While the county was willing to share its last, best offer with the public, the union's unwillingness to release its last, best offer precludes us from releasing ours at this time." For now, the taxpayers will simply have to take the strapped county's word that it's trying to dial back the generous salaries and benefits that firefighters managed to extract in better fiscal times (see editorial below).
Not only is the public locked out of contract negotiations, in this case they'll be dealt a binding ruling from an arbitrator who doesn't answer to them, and told, "This is how your hard-earned dollars will be spent this year whether you like it or not." They won't be able to find out about all manner of contract "sweeteners" unavailable in the battered private sector until they're a done deal.
That's no way to conduct the public's business.
We'd prefer to see the 2011 Legislature ban collective bargaining from Nevada's public sector for good. The unsustainable government payrolls and billions of dollars worth of unfunded pension liabilities that have resulted from the current process are as much to blame for budget woes as the Great Recession.
Absent that, legislation to impose the requirements of Nevada's open meeting law on contract negotiations would be an excellent compromise. Considering personnel costs consume the lion's share of tax dollars within every government entity, it's crazy that taxpayers and elected officials can't directly control them. Unions would be less inclined to start negotiations with out-of-sight demands if a room full of voters were listening.
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David: Great idea, flip off the firefighters. Then next time you have an emergency, the firefighters can pass by and flip you off. Great thinking on your part....NOT.
Disband unions for public employees and privatize privatize privatize. This goes for all public jobs, not just the fire fighters. Anyone who complains should be shown the door. In the mean time us productive members of society should flip off any obvious member of the government gang. Fire fighters being one of those groups easy to spot. Let 'em know what we think of 'em. Flip 'em off as you pass 'em.
Fire them all and start over.
>>>>We'd prefer to see the 2011 Legislature ban collective bargaining from Nevada's public sector for good.<<<< Lotsa luck with that... Public employee unions own the Nevada legislature.... The only way to fix the gouging of the taxpayers by these parasites is through an initiative petition leading to a vote to amend the state constitution in order to abolish government unions..
It is all George Bush's fault.
no, actually it is teh corrupt politicians who are at fault. These perks and contracts were "agreed" to by politicians, whether it was the city council or the county commision. I suspect that they did so to garner support from teh unions.
the real answer would be to ban unions from participation in politics - period. It should be "We the People" individual Americans, who participate - not corporations or the SEIU et al.
Only way to get rid of the problem: fire them and ban collective bargaining for public employees. It used to be that public sector workers traded slightly lower pay for job security, retirement, and a less demanding job. Now we have the "public sector millionaire." The bloated payrolls and retirement packages are THE fiscal issue facing state and local governments nationwide. If we don't deal with it, it will bankrupt us. We can't afford to "compromise" and accept just an open meeting law. Fire them and ban the unions. Average pay for a fireman in Clark County: $175,000. The highest: (Steve McClintock, FD Volunteer Coord, $474,559.97, 2009). This thing has gotten totally out of control.
The real reason for this is that nearly all of the local politicians in this city are corrupt.
The state legislature needs to make changes to the state retirement system. Retirement should not be payed on overtime, longevity pay, selling of sick days, vacation days and many other hidden benefits. e. The collusion of misuse of sick leave should be investIgated and prosecuted if found true..Instead of buying out so called injured firemen a disabiility policy shoould be purchased for them. its not a difficult process and I'm sure our herooes will understand.
Lies, lies, and more lies.
Throw the bums out. Fire them all. There are plenty of folks that could qualify for these jobs.
Firefighters used to be looked up to. Now they are the scourge of the earth.
What a government official didn't follow through and do what he said he would. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Yeah, ya'll keep voting cause that seems to be working out so well.