Greenfield City Council Passes FY2023 Operating Budget With Reduction To Police Department

By KENNEDY GRIFFIN

(Greenfield, MA) Greenfield City Council continued their meeting from Wednesday evening on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and completed their agenda, passing the Fiscal Year 2023 City Operating Budget as presented and amended with a 10 to 2 vote. After amendments, the total operating budget for 2023 is $57,893,636. 

Thursday’s continuation of the City Council meeting picked up where they left off on their agenda, the operating budget for public safety. They discussed multiple amendments to the Greenfield Police salary and wages budget in an effort to address issues with the department such as its relationship with the community and its inflated budget in comparison with other local municipalities. 

Councilor Forgey brought up the fact that the Council’s power lies with the budget and while they may reduce the budget with the intention of cutting the salaries of certain people, the way it would actually work with union contracts is the last ones in would be the first to be let go. Councilor Forgey said to get to the “800 pound gorilla in the room”, if the sentiment from the community and council is to remove certain people from the department, then the executive branch, the Mayor, would need to make that decision. 

Acting Chief William Gordon was present to answer questions and went over what different proposed reductions would mean in terms of laying off officers. Acting Chief Gordon said that if the Council reduced the salaries and wages by $1.2 million as suggested by Councilor Bottomley, that would cost the department about 20 officers. If $1 million were cut, the department would lose sixteen officers, including two female officers, one minority officer, and eight Greenfield residents. If $350,000 were cut from the budget, they would lose eight officers. These figures also do not include the related costs of laying off officers such as unemployment benefits and paying out accrued time. Councilor Forgey added that these related costs can be quite large and there is a general idea that laying off one position means two more would have to be laid off to account for those costs.

As President Gilmour said though, the community has asked the council to do something and something needs to be done saying, “I don’t think we can let this pass one more year.” And furthermore, councilors DeSorgher and Bullock brought up that the budget for the police department is disproportionate to the City’s overall budget, especially when compared to neighboring municipalities. Greenfield spends $216 per capita on the police department whereas North Adams, which has a similar per capita income as Greenfield, spends $106 per capita on their police department. 

After much discussion, the Council voted to reduce the Greenfield Police salaries and wages budget by $400,000. This amounts to about eight officer’s salaries, looking at the most junior first as with union contracts the department would have to lay off the most recent hires first. There was motivation to compromise and work together as a council to serve the community and the city.

The Council also voted to reduce the police expenditure budget by almost $25,000, mostly after discussion of the clothing and uniforms allowances. With some discussion, the rest of the City’s operating  budget was approved as presented. 

There were also commendations made to several city departments such as the Department of Public Works, Building Inspector, and Department of Health. Vice President Guin also praised the Ways and Means Committee for the “endless hours of deliberations, extra meetings, and time spent” working on the budget. 

As Councilor Jarvis is leaving the council he added that it has been an “honor and privilege to serve with everyone on this committee.”

And President Gilmour said the in the committee chairs meeting they will be further discussing the letter Mayor Wedegartner wrote to Officer Todd Dodge to notify him of his leave and the sentiments from the community and some of the council to have Mayor Wedegartner take action against Chief Robert Haigh and other officers related to misconduct.