Fresh off pay concessions, LV firefighters cleared in inquiry

Certainly the big story about Las Vegas firefighters is the tentative agreement struck with the city, avoiding the additional costs and enormous uncertainly of arbitration.

The city sought $8.8 million in savings over the next two fiscal years and ended up with $6.5 million agreed to by the International Association of Firefighters Local 1285.

The biggest benefit gained by the union was the city's agreement not to pursue privatizing emergency medical services during the two-year contract. Because 90 percent of city firefighter calls are medical rather than fire-related, privatizing such services means firefighters would lose jobs. That's a big deal for union leaders.

Union officials fought hard to eliminate "brownouts," the city's proposal that certain units not be staffed for a day on a rotating basis. The staff would be reassigned to other sites to reduce overtime. Firefighters contended it would increase response times. Eliminating brownouts and dropping the idea of privatization of emergency services were the big "gives" by the city.

In exchange, the union agreed to various monetary reductions for its 601 members, including eliminating cost-of-living raises and uniform allowances for one year, halving step increases, and reducing the city's medical contributions.

A $6.5 million savings is not to be scoffed at, and avoiding arbitration is a positive, so the agreement is a positive.

While that is the big story, there's another story involving Las Vegas firefighters.

In March, I wrote a column about a friend who said he felt intimidated when two firefighters came to his home on Cottonwood Place and asked him to sign a petition to support the firefighters.

He refused.

He told me that after they left he walked outside, thinking perhaps they were imposters, and he saw a red Las Vegas Fire & Rescue truck in front of the house next door.

Las Vegas officials took it seriously. Using taxpayer-funded resources for union business would have been a serious violation.

First, the Las Vegas Fire Department did its own investigation and could not confirm one of their trucks had been on Cottonwood Place the last week of February, the period in question.

Then city Auditor Radford Snelding was asked to investigate, so it wouldn't look as if fire officials were covering for their own.

The investigation wasn't fast, but it was thorough.

Snelding used GPS to try to corroborate that a firetruck had been on Cottonwood Place. Later, with Deputy City Marshal Jessica Watson, he walked door-to-door on Cottonwood Place and adjacent streets. He interviewed 12 residents and found the homeowner on April 28.

"Although the homeowner appears to be credible, his information is not explicit enough to identify that the individuals were firefighters or the existence of any fire vehicle," Snelding wrote in his report to city officials. The evidence does not support the allegation that city fire officials were there or asked homeowners on that street to sign petitions, he concluded.

Snelding said in an interview that the homeowner "had an experience of some kind. I don't know who it was or what happened."

The homeowner remains absolutely unwavering: There were two Las Vegas firefighters, and he saw a medium-sized Las Vegas firetruck.

Could the GPS reports be altered?

An administrator could do it.

"The administrator is not a Las Vegas firefighter," Snelding said.

The system is monitored and operated by the county from another jurisdiction, and tampering would create an audit trail. The company that monitors the system would detect such tampering, he said.

Firefighters also wouldn't know how to alter transmitters on a truck, Snelding said.

The bottom line: The city investigated it and couldn't corroborate it.

Without corroboration, nothing can be done. Believing and proving are two different things. In America, we're still innocent until proven guilty, even if there are millions of dollars at stake.

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.