KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasChanges Proposed to Las Vegas' 24-Hour Marriage Licenses
Las Vegas is known around the world as a "24-hour" town, and getting married is no exception!
In an effort to cut costs, Clark County wants to stop issuing marriage licenses around the clock.
Click here to read the proposed changes.
The county says fewer than 4-percent of all marriage licenses are issued during the graveyard shift. And while it may be a bright symbol of our 24-hour town, the shift is not immune from the budget ax!
It's 2:30 in the morning on Sunday and the marriage license bureau is open for business. It may be eerily quiet outside -- just a limo from a wedding chapel waiting nearby -- but inside, a couple is getting a marriage license. But it is a scene that will likely change.
Eliminating the graveyard shift will save the county about $150,000 a year in staff and overtime costs.
Shirley Parraguirre is a county clerk. "And the county only has only so many positions to go around, and divide that by 41 or 42 departments... So, I am not the only one who is short handed," she said.
Right now the Clark County Marriage License Bureau is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.
It's then open continuously from 8 a.m. Friday through midnight Sunday. And it's also open around the clock on long holiday weekends.
But under the new plan, the bureau would be open from 8 a.m. to midnight 7 days a week. Holidays would be no exception.
With the worldwide marketing of Las Vegas as a town were anything goes most visitors are under the impression that includes getting married.
Dirk Assman and his fiancé came all the way from Germany to tie the knot. "We didn't want to do it in Germany because the whole family, it is too huge, and Las Vegas is the right place," he commented.
The county is well aware that marriage is big business.
A letter was sent to about 70 local chapels before the change was proposed.
Shirley Parraguirre continued, "We have not had one response back saying that it would impact them at all. So, even though they come in and get a license at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning most of them are not getting married until after 8 o'clock the next morning at any rate."
So after all these years, why is the county doing this now?
It has to do with a re-alignment of the county clerk's office. A majority of those employees will be soon be transferring into the direct control of district court.
Once those employees move, the clerk says she would need to hire about four new staff people to cover that graveyard shift.
It's a budget she just doesn't have.
The public will get a chance to weigh in on these proposed changes. There's a public hearing in front of Clark County Commissioners on Wednesday, August 16.
Send feedback to I-Team reporter Mark Sayre at msayre@klastv.com
