GREENFIELD — The Public Safety Commission has accepted acting Police Chief William Gordon’s plan for moving forward into fiscal year 2023 in light of a $425,000 cut to the Police Department budget, a plan that does not include layoffs at this time to retain midnight shift staffing.
That plan, the recommendation for which will now be sent to Mayor Roxann Wedegartner for consideration, includes removing the part-time officer program (a change that would also eliminate summer bicycle patrols), placing detectives on a hybrid schedule by splitting their time between patrol and detective work, and allowing some open or soon-to-be open management positions to remain unfilled.
While Gordon hopes the department can receive grants to help retain the seven officers originally proposed to be cut, quarterly budget discussions will continue.
“We’re accepting your recommendation with phrasing that will also include careful scrutiny moving forward,” Public Safety Commission member Susan White told Gordon last week. “Obviously, the first quarter meeting will be very important to see where we’re at in both (salary and expenses) to forecast the next quarter.”
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.
“This is the safest outcome for the citizens at this time,” Gordon said of the proposal he made to commissioners. “It’s all about trying to maintain public safety and the safety of our officers. If I was to lose additional officers over the summer and have to honor their vacation time, we’d be talking about losing the entire midnight shift. I don’t think that is safe for the city of Greenfield and I will not recommend that type of cut.”
Gordon said that in addition to Officer Laura Gordon’s leave of absence, another senior officer and a senior sergeant are considering leaves of absence or early retirements in the wake of the City Council budget cuts. Additionally, one dispatcher has resigned, one Clinical & Support Options clinician has resigned and a lieutenant has announced his retirement, effective January 2023.
“These are the unintended consequences of the discussions that have been going on here in Greenfield,” he said.
Gordon previously explained that the cut to salaries amounts to seven officers. However, between cutting the part-time wages and the loss of management positions through attrition, a handful of officers could potentially be spared. Gordon argued against laying off any officers, particularly during the summer, when overtime would be required to fill the gaps created by summer vacations.
“We are not willing to lay any officers off over the summertime,” Gordon said. “We are just going to have to try to work to find that other $200,000. … If I laid off anyone right now, it would legitimately mean there would be no midnight coverage for Greenfield. I personally cannot live with those consequences.”
He said the matter of layoffs should instead be revisited quarterly.
Gordon told commissioners the department has applied for the COPS Hiring Program grant, which could provide up to $1 million over the next three years.
“They’re temporary grants,” he said. “That would prevent anybody from being laid off at the Greenfield Police Department for the next three years. The community would have to agree to those terms and commit to those terms.”
And finally, he said the department hopes to continue to work with the mayor and City Council to “look at the possibility of having supplemental funding” to cover any of the additional costs it may have toward the end of the year.
“I think it would be really foolish for us to lay people off at this given time,” Gordon told commissioners. “I think it would be a better choice to look at quarterly funding and talk about where we are in the fall, where we are in the winter, and keep a very tight eye on the budget we have here.”
On the expense side, he said, instead of having four cruisers on the road for proactive patrol, the department has switched to a model where there are two cruisers staffed by two officers.
“Because our fuel line is going to be more than doubled, or anticipated to be more than doubled,” he said, “in order to mitigate that fuel expense … one can assume if you drive half as much you’ll save half that money.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne