GREENFIELD — Acting Police Chief William Gordon came before the Public Safety Commission Wednesday evening to present an overview of the Greenfield Police Department’s budget as it compares to other area police departments, and to outline potential avenues forward with respect to cuts to the city’s police force.
The cuts that city councilors made to the Police Department’s proposed fiscal year 2023 budget during a May 19 meeting include $400,000 for salaries, bringing the salary line down to $3.1 million, and $25,000 in expenses, bringing the expense line to $275,000. The budgetary decisions came just two weeks after a jury verdict found the Greenfield Police Department and Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. discriminated against former Officer Patrick Buchanan, the department’s only Black officer at that point, when he was denied a promotion.
Because of union obligations, Gordon explained that any money cut from the salaries and wages line item in the budget would result in the layoffs of the most recently hired officers. Those officers are likely to include Brendan Smith, Adam Belville, Marcus Johansson, Jedadiah Henry, Matthew Llewelyn and Nicholas Limoges.
Gordon said before anyone is laid off, he expects to sit down with the union in an attempt to come up with alternative paths for his employees to take, such as furloughs.
He added that his wife, Officer Laura Gordon, recently submitted her notice for a leave of absence, to last a period of one year, to save Officer Ella Sinigur’s job.
“I think it’s very nice for her to do that,” he said. “I’m a little biased on that, so I’m going to leave that one alone.”
How those layoffs would affect the department, however, remain to be determined, Gordon told commissioners. Some pathways forward include cutting the midnight shift; eliminating the community outreach officer and detective positions; or switching to a level of service that equates to not being able to handle two emergencies at once.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to survive that,” Gordon said. “Often, our officers are going to more than one emergency at once. … I’m not ready at the moment to decide which exact path we’re going to be taking.”
Commissioners and Gordon agreed that by the June 29 meeting, the board would be prepared to vote on a recommendation to send to Mayor Roxann Wedegartner on how to address the $425,000 budget cut for fiscal year 2023.
“Previously, we’ve shied away from providing staffing levels on shifts, because it’s a strategic thing,” said Chair Butch Hawkins. “But we’ve gotten to a point now, I think, where we really have to talk about our staffing … and what services are going to be reduced because of that reduction in staffing.”
Gordon spent at least half of the two-hour-long meeting addressing comments made by city councilors during the May 19 budget hearing — objecting to some, while agreeing with others.
He began by echoing At-Large Councilor Christine Forgey’s remarks that the city had some “hard decisions” ahead, and that to transition to a “new way of policing,” it is important to hold onto the “new, young blood.”
The impact cuts would have on response time, as pointed out by At-Large Councilor Penny Ricketts, was also a concern of his.
“We’re already feeling some of those effects, as we start moving into transition,” he said. “Not having good response time is not good, and it’s not safe. Councilor Ricketts is 100% right about that.”
He also spoke, however, to comments made by Precinct 7 Councilor Jasper Lapienski, who argued that people, in fact, “want to be left alone.”
“I’m not sure what he’s saying,” Gordon said. “Should police not be going to domestics? How long should we delay that response? … Is this really what we want?”
Gordon also acknowledged the difference in Police Department spending compared to area departments. In particular, he referenced the Greenfield People’s Budget, a group of individuals and organizations campaigning for public safety solutions in the city that has compared Greenfield to Amherst, Easthampton, North Adams and Northampton.
Specifically, he compared Greenfield to Easthampton, noting the higher number of calls for service, arrests, summons, felonies and other types of calls that Greenfield officers are involved in.
“You can’t compare these two agencies,” he said.
Speaking to Amherst as a comparison, he noted that Amherst has a department at the University of Massachusetts that can back up the town’s department.
Gordon also argued that Greenfield should instead be compared to other county seats, or cities and towns that offer a wide variety of services and organizations.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, resident Molly Merrett responded to Gordon’s presentation.
“I was there at that meeting,” said Merrett, referencing City Council’s budget hearing last month. “That decision was made on the basis of cutting particular officers’ salaries. We’re talking about (Police Chief) Haigh, we’re talking about (Lt. Daniel McCarthy), we’re talking about (Sgt. Todd) Clark. Racially discriminating against community members and members of the police force is not keeping us safe; showing up drunk to work repeatedly is not keeping us safe; displaying a confederate flag … is not keeping us safe. These cuts — we want them to be directed toward those three individuals.”
Merrett added that she knows Gordon said “last in, first out.”
“You’re a smart person, I think you can figure this out,” Merrett said. “The mayor, also, has a role in deciding who the police chief is.”
Resident Jon Magee echoed Merrett’s concerns.
“Even though I’m part of the Greenfield People’s Budget, I don’t think any of us relish bringing hardship on people,” he said. “But … I think it’s unfortunate that with all of the decisions about cutting these officers, there has not been more discussion, or honest engagement, about what motivated the councilors to make this cut, and that is the documented wrongdoing by police officers in GPD … and a variety of other things that should have been disciplined but never were.”
He said that is the kind of response that causes the community to lose trust in the department.
“The Police Department already had a problem and we happened to come along and talk publicly about it when people over the years have been too intimated … in public forums to even talk about this stuff,” Magee said.
Wedegartner announced on May 27 that the city is launching an independent audit of the Police Department that will examine its practices and standards. The financial order to begin the Request for Proposals (RFP) process and pay for a consultant will come before City Council for a vote on June 15. As Greenfield needs to go through the state’s procurement process, Wedegartner said the bidding process will last roughly 60 days. The audit itself will likely not begin until late summer or early fall.
Magee also thanked Gordon for engaging with the Greenfield People’s Budget website; however, he didn’t believe Gordon’s reading of the website was accurate.
Ultimately, Hawkins told Gordon to return to the Public Safety Commission at its June 29 meeting with a more “tightly defined” pathway forward to be reviewed and voted on by commissioners.
“I do believe this is a community conversation we need to have,” Gordon told commissioners at the start of Wednesday’s meeting. “Although I lead the department, I work for the people in the city of Greenfield. … This is a Police Department I love and a city I love.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne