County OKs tentative budget, concerned about detention OT pay

Clark County leaders have agreed on a tentative $1.45 billion budget for fiscal year 2020 that pumps $14 million in extra revenue to public safety and other departments, in part to address soaring overtime pay in the jails.

Under the proposed spending plan, due to the state by mid-April, county departments would receive $6 million in supplemental funds.

The Metropolitan Police Department would get the other $8 million, enough to bring on about 65 officers and more than 35 civilian positions. The allocation, however, fulfills just half of $15.8 million in requests for much-needed staffing submitted by the department and its jail division.

While county and police officials agree that both areas require attention, they say a long-brewing situation in detention is particularly troublesome.

For years now, a shortage of corrections officers in two Las Vegas Valley detention centers has sent overtime pay soaring and hampered county officials from bankrolling more officers in the jails and on the streets.

“The goal is to get more officers,” Commission Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick said. “I can’t do that if I’m spending all of the dollars here on overtime.”

The dilemma has spurred the county and Metro to evaluate creating a new classification of hires who would be paid less than correctional officers, with the thinking it would bolster staff counts. But momentum chilled after opposition from the police union who worry about lesser-paid employees feeling pressure to illegally supplement incomes.

Jail overtime pay soars

Overtime pay at the county’s two facilities, the Clark County Detention Center and North Valley Complex, has climbed from $4.9 million in fiscal year 2013 to $26.6 million in the last fiscal year, county figures show.

By the time the current fiscal year closes June 30, county officials project detention overtime costs will have risen to $27.1 million.

In response, Metro will use the slight majority of supplemental funding in the coming fiscal year budget, or $4.5 million, to fund 26 new corrections officer and supervisor positions, as well as 15 civilian jobs, according to spokeswoman Laura Meltzer.

The remaining $3.5 million will bankroll 40 police officers, detectives and supervisors, along with 22 civilians, she said.

There are more than 3,200 commissioned positions throughout the department, officials say.

Metro Deputy Chief Fred Meyer, who oversees the Detention Services Division, acknowledged that detention overtime pay is “concerning for us.” He blamed short-staffing on attrition, although he noted that overtime costs appeared to be leveling off over the past two years.

Meyer also pointed to a series of efficiencies he said were undertaken to ease the overtime pay burden — even as arrests have gone up and more than 68,000 individuals last year were processed at the Clark County Detention Center.

The department has cut back bed rentals in other jurisdictions, saving close to $5 million, and embraced risk assessment tools, he said, but perhaps the biggest driver in reducing jail population to its lowest point in four years has been the significant uptick in house arrests.

Still, in their budget meeting March 25, county commissioners were faced with balancing reinforcements for public safety on the streets and in detention, and the unattainable requests from other department heads to add 290 total positions across the government.

“I’m struggling on what to tell my employees,” Kirkpatrick said. “Hey, I have 290 positions that are up, I have all these other requests that are up, and I can’t even consider it.”

Projected growth, otherwise

The quagmire dominated budget talks as elected leaders approved the tentative spending plan for the coming fiscal year, projecting 5 percent year-over-year growth, or $69.4 million more than the current fiscal year, amid ongoing expected bumps in property tax revenues that have trended upward since 2013.

The $329.5 million in anticipated property tax in 2020 inches closer to pre-recession numbers, according to information presented by county Chief Financial Officer Jessica Colvin. The county collected $383.1 million in 2009, she said.

Assessed home values have been even stronger in the past seven years, rising from a decade-low of $54.2 billion to a projected $92.2 billion in 2020, nearly doubling the pace of property tax income due to a formula that caps residential and commercial property tax growth at 3 and 8 percent, respectively.

In the current fiscal year, the county could have received another $180 million if not for the cap, enacted in 2005 by state lawmakers to provide tax relief as land values boomed.

While county officials apportioned $6 million in supplemental funding to departments this coming budget cycle, Commissioner Justin Jones lamented that the allocation is “one-thirtieth of what we might have gotten without the property tax cap.”

Consolidated tax revenues — principally sales tax — were expected to rise for the 10th-straight year, to $411 million, county figures show. Taxes as a whole account for nearly one-third of the county’s overall general fund budget.

The tentative spending plan projects a 3.5 percent increase in expenses spread evenly across most departments.

It maintains a $31 million allocation to University Medical Center while reserving $9.7 million in projected marijuana business license fees for homeless initiatives.

At least one more budget hearing will occur before the final spending plan is submitted on June 1, County Manager Yolanda King said.

Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.