Metro plan for new headquarters moves ahead

By Joe Schoenmann

Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Monday’s meeting of the Metro Police Fiscal Affairs Committee had a decidedly tense tone, as police turned out in force to push for the construction of a 370,000-square-foot headquarters and the two Clark County commissioners on the committee spoke against it.

The Fiscal Affairs Committee also includes two members of the Las Vegas City Council and an appointed representative of the general public, William McBeath, a gaming executive.

Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani appears to have a beef against the Metro headquarters deal. Why? Doesn’t the police department need a central place that would consolidate some 60 offices it leases throughout the Las Vegas Valley?

She said she is not against a headquarters. She just doesn’t like the way this deal is structured because a developer is to build the headquarters on land he owns, then will lease it to the police under a 30-year contract. The deal also allows for the city and county to later purchase the headquarters.

“I just don’t like leases,” Giunchigliani said. “And I think it should be built on county land. We’re responsible for taxpayer dollars, and I want to be careful how we spend those dollars.”

Exactly what the headquarters will cost taxpayers has yet to be spelled out.

She also said she wants the county to have more time to study other potential sites. The proposed site is at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Alta Drive.

Study more sites? Hasn’t this been studied for years now?

That’s what Metro’s representatives said. But Giunchigliani said she wants to see more extensive comparisons of several potential sites.

“What is wrong with us having the opportunity to look at all potential sites?” she said.

She also wanted to look back at another option that was previously considered by the prior sheriff — converting the old courthouse into a police headquarters.

So what is Sheriff Doug Gillespie’s argument for this lease plan?

He said that with a tried and reliable developer, Mark Fine, the project will be finished on time, within budget and much more quickly. The new headquarters is long overdue and the longer it is put off, the more expensive it will become, the sheriff and other advocates of the proposal said. McBeath, the committee’s chairman, pointed to the massive cost overruns and delays with constructing the Regional Justice Center as an example of just how wrong a county-run project can go.

So, did the committee approve the headquarters plan?

After Giunchigliani left the meeting, the committee voted 4-0 for the lease, contingent upon resolution of a couple of outstanding issues, including one she had raised.

Metro currently uses 70,000 square feet in City Hall for its headquarters. If a new building is constructed, the city is required by law to cover the lease cost on that amount of square footage, Giunchigliani said.

The other county commissioner on the Fiscal Affairs Committee, Susan Brager, said another issue is that the headquarters would be built within the city redevelopment area, so all the property tax revenue from the project would go to the city. That needs to be taken into account when structuring how much the city will pay for the new headquarters, Brager said.

Because Metro is responsible for policing Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County, the two local governments use a formula to determine how much each has to contribute to Metro’s budget. It works out to the county covering about 60 percent, and the city paying for the rest.