Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

North Las Vegas launches program to hire disabled veterans

North Las Vegas Disabled Veterans Employment

L.E. Baskow

Larry Griffith with the Teamsters Local 14 is pleased to have his organization as part of the Department of Veteran Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program coming to North Las Vegas on Tuesday, November 3, 2015.

North Las Vegas Disabled Veterans Employment

Larry Griffith with the Teamsters Local 14 is pleased to have his organization as part of the Department of Veteran Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program coming to North Las Vegas on Tuesday, November 3, 2015. Launch slideshow »

North Las Vegas has grappled with understaffing since the recession, when it cut its staff in half, leaving employees juggling responsibilities previously held by two or three people.

Now, the city has an unlikely, if temporary, solution to the problem: disabled veterans.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and city officials announced Tuesday a program to train disabled veterans by placing them in positions throughout the city to gain work experience. Officials called the agreement a win-win: Disabled veterans would gain work experience to facilitate a transition into the civilian workforce, and North Las Vegas would temporarily obtain the help of extra bodies to run the city.

“We’re putting skilled people to work, and we need their skills in this community to continue to grow our future workforce,” Mayor John Lee said.

In what might appear an unusual move, Teamsters Local 14 — the city’s biggest employee union — backed the program. The union’s secretary-treasurer Larry Griffith said the initiative would help veterans, to “get them out from the underpasses and off the streets,” without taking jobs away from current city staff. The city wouldn’t have hired these workers outside the program anyways, he said.

“During the recession, the city was at hard times,” Griffith said. “(The mayor) and I had to sit down and negotiate things to keep this city alive, and this program fits right into what we do and where the city is at.”

The city hopes that veterans will fill revenue-generating positions, helping the city get its finances back on track and — eventually — create more permanent jobs, said Greg Blackburn, the city’s director of community development and compliance. The goal is to have about 20 veterans working in the city at any given time, Blackburn said.

Disabled veterans will apply to work in a number of different departments — including accounting, business licensing, fire prevention, mechanics and permitting — for six months, which can later be extended up to a year.

In exchange for participating in the nonpaid work experience program, veterans will receive a monthly living allowance from the VA, which means the program won’t cost the city. To qualify for the program, veterans must have a disability related to their service in the military and have a nondishonorable discharge. The disability can be anything from minimal — which the VA calls a 10 percent disability — to significant, including everything from injuries to PTSD.

Nevada veterans can already participate in the work experience program through the state or federal governments, but this is the first agreement of its kind with a municipality in Southern Nevada, said Anthony Roeback, division chief of the vocational rehabilitation and employment for the VA’s regional office.

“It takes committed folks to get this to happen, and the city of North Las Vegas has taken this head on,” Roeback said. “It takes an individual to say, ‘I’ll take this person and give them an opportunity.’”

The city already has two interviews with veterans scheduled and hopes to have veteran “boots on the ground” by Dec. 1.

U.S. Air Force veteran David Gibbs, who sits on the city’s Veterans Community Commission, said that veterans are uniquely qualified to help the city of North Las Vegas. “When you give a veteran a job, that’s always a good thing,” Gibbs said. “And military people have an understanding of what it means to work for the greater good.”

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy