Consolidating services may improve efficiency, but comes with headaches

By Anjeanette Damon

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011 | 2 a.m.

When times are tight, the cry for consolidated — read, cheaper — government services grows louder.

Witness North Las Vegas, on the brink of receivership, studying whether to consolidate everything from after-school programs to fire inspection services with Las Vegas.

Most recently, the two cities signed an agreement to consolidate their fire-training operations.

But consolidation isn’t always a panacea for cash-strapped governments.

In fact, in what may be a cautionary tale for Southern Nevada governments exploring consolidation, Washoe County is working to free itself from a contract with Reno to provide fire-protection services.

Instead of saving the county money, commissioners say the opposite is occurring.

“We just can’t afford to maintain the agreement that we currently have with the city of Reno,” Washoe County Commissioner John Breternitz said.

The two fire departments aren’t technically consolidated. Rather, for the past 10 years, the county has contracted with Reno to provide fire protection services.

At the time the hard-fought contract was signed, it was touted as a model of government efficiency. No longer would county firefighters have to pass city fire stations on their way to battle a blaze. No longer would multiple mutual-aid agreements be signed to provide coverage for “islands” of county land within the city’s boundaries.

Instead, seamless service would be provided valleywide regardless of jurisdiction.

Perhaps ironically, both county and city officials continue to tout the fire service agreement as a model of efficiency. And they acknowledge that service levels will suffer as a result of dissolving the contract.

“I’m very supportive of consolidation, believe me,” Breternitz said. “This is just a case of that was then, this is now.”

Faced with dwindling property tax revenue earmarked for fire protection services, the county commissioners decided they no longer want to pay for the four-person crews that Reno’s contract with the firefighters union — and national safety standards — dictates.

The county has one year to rebuild its own fire department and commissioners hope to do so with a flexible staffing arrangement that wouldn’t require them to maintain four-person crews at all times.

The Reno City Council vehemently opposed the county’s decision to pull out of the contract, with members arguing it worked perfectly.

“It’s not a failure,” Reno Councilman Dave Aiazzi said. “It has been working. I honestly do believe this thing has been working well for both sides.”

Aiazzi blamed politics and a few strong personalities on the county commission for the bailing on the decadelong agreement.

“If there’s anything for Southern Nevada to learn from this, if there was any failure, it was probably making it an interlocal agreement that anybody could get out of without any reason for it,” Aiazzi said.

If he had it to do over again, Aiazzi said he would have pushed for provisions that would have prevented either side from dumping the contract without cause, protecting the longevity of the contract from political whims.

The failure of the agreement also has raised the hackles of the fire unions, which see it as a potentially drastic move to undermine the employment contracts that have been negotiated over the past decade to require the four-person crews.

That safety measure is necessary to comply with federal standards requiring two firefighters remain outside a burning building while two firefighters go in to fight the blaze.

“If your goal is to save money by de-consolidating, then the byproduct is a decreased level of services,” Rusty McAllister, president of the Professional Firefighters of Nevada, said. “The byproduct may be a detriment to public safety.”

In the last legislative session, McAllister pushed a failed bill that would have allowed Clark and Washoe counties to consolidate their fire departments according to the model set by the Las Vegas Metro Police. Under that model, the joint fire department would be run by an elected fire chief with greater autonomy from city councils and county commissions.

“That’s one of the most successful models out there,” McAllister said.

Meanwhile, as Southern Nevada officials continue to float consolidation proposals, they are warily watching what’s happening with Northern Nevada’s fire consolidation woes.

“That does send a really mixed message,” Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said. “It’s very confusing and the public does not understand when we do that.”