WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – One member of the Watertown city council says he’s a ‘no’ vote on next year’s budget, unless two positions are restored to the police department.
Patrick Hickey’s message to the rest of council may provoke a rethink about how many new positions the police department gets.
The budget is up for a vote at Monday night’s council meeting.
“My whole campaign was based on public safety,” Hickey said Friday. “i firmly believe that if the police chief believes he needs five people, we should give him five people.”
The police department sought five new officers in the coming year, but at a budget session earlier this week, that number was cut to three.
Hickey cited the influx of drugs into Watertown as one important reason the police should get more officers.
Both council members Lisa Ruggiero and Sarah Compo Pierce said they’re prepared to reconsider the two cut positions.
Council member Cliff Olney was the lone member who opposed cutting the two positions, meaning there are potentially at least four votes on council to restore the new jobs.
The issue of police positions became entangled with a pay raise the council plans to give itself.
Olney said Friday picking between the pay raise and the new jobs is a “false choice,” but if he had to, he would forgo the pay increase in order to get the police positions.
Mayor Jeff Smith supported three new positions for the police at the budget meeting, but opposed the other two.
He remains skeptical.
“I’ll listen to the arguments” he said Friday, but pointed out all the new positions council was considering – not just police – would cost $1.4 million a year.
Right now, the city is awash in federal COVID relief money, but that money is only temporary and the cost of the employees won’t go down, Smith said.
“The people who say ‘You’ve got all this money, spend it’ aren’t looking past their noses,” he said.
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