Prosecutors, Clark County agree to contract concessions

County prosecutors have agreed to take a 3 percent pay cut, ending months of rancor with the County Commission over contract negotiations.

Clark County Prosecutors Association, which represents 90 attorneys, also agreed to other concessions, saving $1.2 million, almost 7 percent of its
$19.2 million contract through the remainder of the fiscal year ending
June 30.

The agreement is expected to be approved, at least in part, when the Clark County Commission meets Tuesday.

The union ratified the plan this week after going more than two months without an agreement.

The average salary for a prosecutor varies, depending on title and time on the job, from about $66,000 to $150,000 per year.

Also, attorneys will forfeit two vacation days and will have a 12-month freeze on longevity pay. They will see their group health insurance benefits shrink slightly.

Pam Weckerly, a chief deputy district attorney and president of the prosecutors association, was not available for comment.

While the deal will put an end to litigation pitting prosecutors against the County Commission, elected officials were unable to reach a deal with Juvenile Probation Supervisors and the Assistant Managers Association.

All parties from those two groups have agreed to binding arbitration.

District Attorney David Roger is not part of the association, but earlier this year, he refused to abide by a countywide order to cut budgets by 9 percent, saying that his budget was already cut to the bone and that he could not prosecute crimes if it were gutted even more.

Clark County averages roughly 60,000 new criminal offenses committed by adults each year, which translates to more than 600 cases per attorney, according to statements Rogers made to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in April.

Since the recession began in 2008, more than 300 Clark County employees have lost their jobs, and unions have not been eager to make concessions, angering private-sector workers who continue to suffer. But from school teachers to nurses at University Medical Center, the county's employees have been hit in the pocketbook.

Last year, the county faced about a $100 million budget shortfall. Cost-cutting measures whittled that figure almost in half.

Since then, county employees -- union and nonunion -- have given up about
$4.4 million in concessions on top of countywide 2 percent pay cuts that saved about $10 million.