LAS VEGAS -- Despite cash-strapped cities, some public employees in southern Nevada are making $100,000 in overtime.
For the past three years, 8NewsNOW.com has posted every public employee's salary and overtime. It's so taxpayers can see where their dollars go.
Salary Tracker 2011: View Public Agency Salaries in Southern Nevada
Cities spend so much in overtime, it made the I-Team question whether they should hire more people, or cut services?
There is a fight for the soul of local government. It's between a citizen's demand for public services, like police and fire protection, and a city's ability to pay for it. Two local cities highlight this fight more than ever -- Henderson and North Las Vegas.
"When we hire somebody, that's a big commitment. Overtime allows us to be more flexible. It allows us to save money," Henderson City Manage Jacob Snow said.
The I-Team tracked Henderson's 2011 salary numbers. Firefighters are the majority of the city's top overtime earners, as they are every year. It's because union contracts demand specific staffing levels for each engine. However, the I-Team did notice overtime for Henderson's jail staff did skyrocket this past year. On officer earned $82,000 in base pay and an additional $91,000 in overtime.
"Now, the jail is a revenue generator for the city of Henderson of between $4 and $5 million a year," Snow said. The city gets money from the federal government to keep undocumented immigrants there.
To lower the massive amounts of overtime it costs to run the jail, Henderson is now hiring 20 employees.
Across town, it is another story. North Las Vegas closed its jail, laid off 100 employees, and intends to cut its overtime budget by half.
"There's sick call and we can't back fill every possible position," said North Las Vegas City Manager Tim Hacker. He leads a city running out of time.
While most cities could just pay overtime to keep service levels the same, North Las Vegas ran out of budgetary band aids. The results are empty fire stations and the possibility of losing the police SWAT team. If the city falls short of its goal of cutting $2 million from its overtime budget, the only option is to find what little spare money is left.
"Reduce an administrative position. We still have the funding in the budget with salary and associated benefits. There are a couple hundred thousand dollars worth in the fire department," Hacker said.
The alternative is for North Las Vegas to admit it cannot afford citizen demands for the same level of public services they're used to.
"We can no longer sustain uncontrolled use of overtime," Hacker said.
