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Budget talks at the City of Plattsburgh continued last week.
PLATTSBURGH | An ongoing effort to slash expenditures in the City of Plattsburgh culminated in a discussion about potential cuts to the city’s police department last week.
City officials continue to look for ways to shave off $1.3 million in expenses during the next 18 months, an effort to stave off double-digit tax increases.
“Perhaps the police force is too large,” Councilor Michael Kelly (Ward 3) said on March 15, citing calls from constituents.
The Plattsburgh City Police Department has grown to over 40 members, he said, when in the 1960s it had fewer than 10.
“There’s no way I would suggest we go back to the staff levels we had back in the ‘60s. I can’t imagine being with that few officers today,” he said. “But there is some happy medium.”
Plattsburgh City Police Department Lieutenant Brad Kiroy deferred comment to the mayor’s office, citing the recent retirement of Plattsburgh City Police Chief Ken Parkinson.
“We currently are in between police chiefs,” Kiroy said. “Normally we would respond, but that’s a response better suited to a department head.”
Lieutenant Levi Ritter also declined to respond to Kelly’s remarks.
“Those comments weren’t made to me directly so it doesn’t feel proper for me to comment on them without speaking to Councilor Kelly first,” Ritter told The Sun in an email.
Kelly also referenced the size of the Plattsburgh City Fire Department, which has a contractual minimum staffing requirement of 36 members.
That minimum staffing requirement, built into the Plattsburgh Professional Firefighters union’s last contract with the city over five years ago, has been a major sticking point in contract negotiations.
Plattsburgh’s firefighters have continued to work under their old contract with the city under the Taylor Law, entering into arbitration every few years to secure back-pay and retroactive wage increases.
The Plattsburgh City Police Department is also represented by a union that negotiates with the city on behalf of staff.
But the department doesn’t have a mandated minimum staffing requirement.
Kelly said that while the city’s tax base has remained stagnant for decades, the size of its government has ballooned since the 1960s.
“We’ve been flat for decades in terms of our tax base, but our city government has grown and grown and grown,” he said.
He went on to say that people wonder why the city can’t afford to pay for street repairs.
“Well, the answer is, we’re paying tremendous payrolls. We don’t have any money left over to pay for road repairs.”
ONGOING PROCESS
These budget talks were the latest in a series stretching out over a year, which have resulted in the closure of four city departments and the transfer of a fifth to county control.
“We have a lot of work to do. We made big cuts last year and we need to do the same again this year,” Kelly said.
Read said last year’s cuts amounted to around $2 million from the city’s total $55 million spending plan.
The Common Council is looking at cutting $360,000 worth of expenses in the coming year, and now another $1 million in the proposed 2019 spending plan. (Earlier this month the gap was anticipated at $558,000 in 2019.)
The reductions are an effort to stave off double-digit tax increases, save the city from reaching the constitutional tax ceiling and rebuild the city’s fund balance.
Read has repeatedly said that those anticipated cuts would primarily come through attrition, or a gradual workforce reduction by not replacing staff who retire or resign.
Though he mentioned the possibility of high-level retirements, Kelly appeared to offer a divergent perspective for the cuts last week.
“Where’s that $1 million going to come from?” Kelly said. “We’re all afraid to discuss that.
“We have to decrease the size of our government. That’s what we have to do. And that means jobs, that means payroll, that means things very near and dear to people and very emotional. But that’s where we stand.”
Budget talks are expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
The city’s 2019 budget isn’t due until January of next year.
