At any time of the day on any day of the week, union workers protest outside Wal-Marts and other non-union entities. Their signs are all the same: "Shame on (insert horrible company name here)."

Lately, their metaphorical signs have said: "Shame on Lynette Boggs McDonald."

Unbelievably, Boggs McDonald's enemies have delved into her life so much that they have gone as far as researching where her children receive medical check-ups. But the County Commissioner has come under quite a deal of fire in the last few months for her voting record and where she rests her head at night.

First, there's the challenge of her primary residency. Is it inside District F or not? Then there's the way she votes for the Culinary Union and Police Protective Association's (PPA) ideals. These issues have geneated more than scathing letters to local editors and attack points for Boggs McDonald's opponent.

This is a story of stalking, betrayal and deception - one almost worthy of a Hollywood script.

Our story begins more than four years ago when Boggs McDonald became a Station Casinos Board member. Station Casinos is a non-union company and the Culinary Union isn't too fond of this. After all, non-union properties hurt union business. At the same time, Boggs McDonald was a Las Vegas City Council member.

During her tenure as a councilwoman, Boggs McDonald often voted in favor of the Culinary Union's interests. For example, after 9/11, when 15,000 Las Vegans lost their jobs, she supported the plan to utilize the city's resources to assist with utility expenses and rent demands. When the Culinary Union needed redevelopment dollars to build its training center, Boggs McDonald was right there voting in favor of the allocated funds.

But the Culinary Union has been trying to unionize Stations for years - unsuccessfully. So when their friend Boggs McDonald became a board member for the enemy, she became the enemy. 

Boggs McDonald hasn't served on the board for two years. She resigned when she became a County Commissioner, liquidating all of her financial ties to the company. Unfortunately, she's branded with a scarlet letter.

Boggs McDonald became a commissioner at the wrong time. The big debate on the table was about raising the sales tax a quarter cent to put more police on the streets. Coming from City Hall, Boggs McDonald didn't want to blindly vote to raise taxes in the name of safety. 

City Hall is responsible for 30 percent of Metro's budget, but Clark County is responsible for the other 70 percent. Furthermore, the county is responsible for 100 percent of the detention centers, courts, bailiffs, stenographers, prosecutors, public defenders, etc.

After weighing the facts, Boggs McDonald supported the measure. The sales tax increased so more cops could be hired. Her main concern was District F. Her district was growing (and still is) by thousands each month. To her, more cops were needed because there were more people.

"When I looked at the [police] response times for my district, which had grown 45 percent since 2000, my logic was: My constituency will be the beneficiary of more police officers," Boggs McDonald said. "But I feel very strongly that when we did that, we made a pact with the taxpayers. We said, if we do this, we promise you we're going to deliver X."

David Kallas is the Executive Director of the PPA. "We have, in the past supported her. She told us she supported the sales tax issue. But then we would hear from people that she had serious concerns on the sales tax. I think she did it just to go along [with the rest of the commission]," he said.

On the heels of the quarter-cent tax increase, the police asked for a 41-percent pay increase. The union said they didn't want to take any more tax dollars, but then the money would come from the general fund - the fund that paid for Metro, the courts and all other operations-based county employees. 

"It's called law and order, not law and law," Boggs McDonald said.

There was no way the county could have afforded that increase without either charging the people more or not putting more cops on the streets. It just wasn't feasible. So, Boggs McDonald voted against the pay increase. 

She was more concerned with her constituents' wallets and the promise she made to them. The bottom line is that if they gave a 41-percent pay increase to the police after just raising taxes, how could the commission say no to the paramedics wanting more money, or the firefighters, or even corrections officers? After all, none of that 41 percent would go to corrections officers. It was strictly for officers on the street.

Today, to meet national standards, 50 more corrections officers are needed to balance out the inmate-to-officer ratio. The commission has to look at the general fund and find a way to hire more corrections officers. This kind of math is not something the PPA understands. They hear "no" to the pay increase and they react. But police managers and supervisors responsible for budgets understand and they support Boggs McDonald.

But going against the union, "That's where the controversy came about," she said.

Because of her stand with the taxpayers, the last few months for Boggs McDonald and her two children have been intimidating, They live in fear and under surveillance. The PPA and the Culinary Union took the charge that Boggs McDonald was not living in her district. The only way they could prove their case was not to research records, but to hire a private investigator to stalk Boggs McDonald and her family. 

Kallas said it was a better option than reporting her to the police. Also, hiring a private investigator is typical in these types of situations. If the PPA and Culinary Union went to the police, the cops would have launched a full investigation that would have caused even more (if you can believe it) controversy. The joint venture of the Culinary Union and the PPA was a result of hearing from several different sources that Boggs McDonald was not living inside of her district limits. Conveniently, her opponent is a union-friendly puppet.

It's true that Boggs McDonald has been trying to buy a house outside of her district. She entered a lease-purchase agreement with a verbal contract that she would not execute the purchase until after the house was mapped inside District F.

"In every map scenario of redistricting, this would all be moot," Boggs McDonald said. "We have to redistrict, and not because I'm trying to buy a house, but because I have 75,000 more constituents than some of my colleagues."

Boggs McDonald's primary residence is in District F. But still, the PPA filed a lawsuit that charged she was living outside the district.

"Their whole plan is to create as much negative publicity for me so the voters are distracted from the facts that over the last few years I have delivered more than $10 million worth of public works improvements to our district," she said.

Meanwhile, the PPA and the Culinary Union support an inexperienced, Clark County School Board member. This union puppet boasts that she's supported by the PPA and Culinary Union, all while the PPA keeps a close eye on Boggs McDonald.

"It's very similar to what the FBI was doing to Martin Luther King in the 1960s," Boggs McDonald said. 

Kallas posed the question, "Why didn't she call the police and say someone is following me?"

"As a mom with kids, it terrorizes me," Boggs McDonald said. "I can no longer call 9-1-1. If I had an emergency in my home, I don't believe calling 9-1-1 is an option because they're out to get me.

"My son got up one morning and said, 'Mommy, they're videotaping me.' He says, 'Do you think they're watching me play soccer?' He wonders if we go to Chuck E. Cheese if they'll be there too. If I'm on the top floor of my house, my son won't go downstairs by himself because he's afraid of the police."

Kallas, though, isn't concerned that Boggs McDonald's 10-year-old African-American boy is afraid of the police. He faults Boggs McDonald for that.

"It's just a shame that she has chosen to drag her kids into this situation," Kallas said. "If she was a good parent, she would tell her kids: 'The police are your friends, you can go to them for help.' Maybe if she told them that mommy was wrong and she's being held accountable for it, they'd understand."

In another effort to decipher where she was living, pediatric records were obtained from the children's doctor. So, of all the pediatricians in the county, how would the unions know where to go? 

It's no secret that Boggs McDonald is going through a rough divorce. Her husband has been quoted in other publications bad mouthing his wife. Boggs McDonald wonders if her husband offered up their kid's information to hurt her. 

If the unions are so concerned about a fair commissioner, they may want to look at their candidate, Susan Brager, a realtor. The nature of her job would be a conflict of interest to be a Clark County Commissioner. Any redistricting matters that she could address as a commissioner could directly affect her well-being. Brager and her campaign office refused to return calls made by Liberty Watch: The Magazine.

The unions haven't been the same since Hoffa disappeared. Back in the 1930s and even into the 1970s, Hoffa led the charge for better worker compensation, risk benefits and all-around improved working conditions.

These days, unions need not worry about worker conditions. There aren't many factory jobs remaining where a worker can lose an arm. Besides, every large company offers health insurance, paid vacation and even 401(k) plans that care for the worker. Some might argue that's too generous.

So what do unions do?

They organize for more members so they can collect more dues for more money to support political candidates who can vote in their favor. This leads to more control, which leads to more members. And round and round it goes.

Boggs McDonald isn't anti-union, she said. Rather, "I see myself as pro-taxpayer."

If she loses this race, unions will run the Clark County Commission. Fiscal conservatives like Chip Maxfield and Bruce Woodbury would be diminished. That would lead to unions having more pull and influence, which could mean taxpayers would pay more and more for unnecessary programs and unaffordable pay increases. 

If Lynette Boggs McDonald retains her seat, the majority of Clark County will save money and see public programs improve - and unions will be left to their own devices. LW