By KENNEDY GRIFFIN
(Greenfield, MA) The City Council heard from Deputy Chief William Gordon and Chief Robert Haigh, as well as residents in public comment, on the request for $1.849 million to be used on department improvements. These improvements included upgrades to the water filtration system, dispatch room, locker room, securing existing site utilities, repaving the parking lot, and building a 3-bay sally port.
There was much discussion on the sally port. The police department needs adequate space for multiple purposes: it would provide a safe environment for both police officers and detainees during the transfer from a police vehicle to the station for booking after an arrest, another bay would be used for temperature-controlled storage for evidence and large items like detained vehicle involved in cases, and also a place for vehicle maintenance including a place to wash the police vehicles – especially in reference to the sanitation required after messy incidents often involving bodily fluids and waste.
Many amendments were attempted to be made to reduce the funding for this project as well as the paving project. The council finally passed a motion to amend the funding from $1.849 million to $1.165 million, in the hopes that the department would use less money towards the sally port. (The council can only appropriate funds and give recommendations on how to use them. They cannot control how departments will prioritize their projects.)
The amended amount of $1.165 million failed to pass in a vote with three nays and two abstentions, after discerning that abstentions count towards the nays rather than the prevailing side and President Gilmour adding a nay vote (included in the total of three nays).
At the end of the meeting, in the midnight hour, President Gilmour moved to reconsider the motion (an act that can only occur once, once it has been reconsidered the motion either passes or fails and that’s the end of it). Vice President Guin addressed the council saying that “we cannot do this to our police station, our police department, two years in a row. It’s unfair to the employees. We have people who sit on this council that are the champion for employees and then they’re willing to put our police department in situations that are unhealthy and set us up for liability. It’s not correct,” in reference to the council voting down funds for the police department improvements the previous year.
Council member Forgey also spoke to the importance of maintaining city buildings and keeping them up to health and safety standards, whether they are school buildings, office buildings, or the police department; “This is no different from any other building. This is getting this building up to speed, making it more productive, and more useful to the citizens of Greenfield.” And after Chief Haigh stepped up again to remind the council of the importance of improving the dispatch team’s working conditions, who serve more than just the police department, including the fire department, the council voted to amend the $1.165 million down to $906,000 (less than half of the Mayor’s request). This effectively cuts the funds for the paving and sali port projects, leaving funds for improving the building and working conditions. The motion passed the City Council vote.