MONTAGUE — Following an Annual Town Meeting vote that level-funded the Montague Police Department’s budget for fiscal year 2021, Police Chief Chris Williams says the overtime, part-time and training budgets are being cut, meaning that shifts generally won’t be filled when officers are sick or on vacation.
Amid national anger over police violence, Annual Town Meeting voters opted on June 13 to level-fund the Police Department, amending the proposed budget to remove a 2.76 percent budget increase.
That difference — $45,582 cut from a spending plan that was originally set at $1,652,537 — would have only funded yearly pay raises, and did not represent any expansion in the Police Department, Williams explained at the meeting.
Because the raises are contractually required, they still have to be paid, whether or not the department is properly budgeted for them — meaning that “level-funding” the budget actually amounts to cutting in other areas.
“It makes it a little problematic, obviously,” Town Accountant Carolyn Olsen said the Monday after the meeting.
The cuts will impact budgets for overtime, part-time officers and training, Williams and Olsen determined this week. In practice, that will mean shifts generally won’t be filled when officers are sick or on vacation, Williams said. The department normally has three officers on duty at a time.
The 40 hours’ training that the state requires of police officers every year will still be met, but the department probably won’t be able to afford the extra training sessions that officers often have, he added.
“My budget doesn’t really have any fat on it,” he said this week. “I understand what Town Meeting was trying to do. But cutting funds isn’t the best way to make a police department better.”
(Williams also noted, contrary to some ideas expressed at Town Meeting, the town does not pay officers to direct traffic when roads are closed for special events; that is covered by the permitting cost, and the town actually makes money from it.)
Whether Town Meeting voters fully understood that they were effectively forcing new cuts is not clear. Williams, at the June 13 meeting, said he did not know at the time what would be cut if the proposed increase was not approved.
Yet, the discussion on Town Meeting floor had little to do with that, and more to do with the issues of police violence and deep-seated racism in American society. Some said that Town Meeting floor was not the time or place for that conversation, while others said it was exactly the place. When the vote was taken, it was 38-35 in favor of the amended budget number.
Natan Cohen, the resident who proposed the amended budget, said it was both symbolic and potentially practical — that the town might choose to spend money on other priorities instead.
Symbolism aside, the money is not easily accessible for other uses. Financial appropriations can only be made by Town Meeting, Olsen explained. The Selectboard can’t simply move the money to a different account for a different use. Likewise, the Selectboard can’t scrape together unused money in other departments and move it to the Police Department.
Regarding the issues of racism and police violence, the extent to which they may be problems locally is not well established. Williams said that Massachusetts, compared to other states, has much tighter restrictions on police officers’ use of force. In the light of recent national conversations on police violence, Massachusetts is ahead of the curve, he said.
Yet, others have claimed that racist tendencies persist, even if they are not overtly violent. At a demonstration in Turners Falls on Sunday, several locals spoke about experiences with local police that they understood to be racist.
Likewise, at Town Meeting last weekend, Mark Wisnewski, a co-owner of The Rendezvous restaurant, spoke strongly about police treatment he has witnessed as a local restaurant owner, and toward his wife, who is Latin-American.
An advisory committee to the Selectboard is also being organized to review the Montague Police Department’s policies and training. The committee has not been formally established, but the Selectboard has asked Town Administrator Steve Ellis to seek interested potential members.
“I think the relationship between the police and the people who are wary of the police will be better moving forward,” Williams said. “We prepare for the worst and hope for the best. That’s where I’m at right now.”
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.