NEW BERLIN – The public hearing asked residents to give feedback to the New Berlin town board about the proposed referendum to defund the New Berlin Police Department. And residents obliged.
Afterwards, in a spilt vote, the board voted to remove the police department from the town’s laws, and then they voted unanimously to hold a public referendum, leaving the final decision to abolish the PD up to town voters.
The public is heard:
“I’ve got a question,” said New Berlin resident and emergency services volunteer Claude Chase at Tuesday’s public hearing.
“We know Chenango County and the whole state right now during this COVID mess, the domestic violence cases are on the rise. Am I right or wrong on that?”
“Yes. They are,” said Town of New Berlin Supervisor Robert Starr.
“Without these guys being in the neighborhood they’re on the edge waiting on 34 to 45 minutes for a deputy, sometimes up to an hour for a state trooper,” said Chase. “These guys are the eyes and ears for the fire department and the ambulance service. Ever since I’ve been here.”
Starr, “Totally agree.”
“They help us anytime we need it. They help us roll on calls when we have no idea what we are going into,” said Chase.
“And like was said, if all devilry breaks lose, what are we suppose to do? We’ve got no coverage. Are we suppose to take the law into our own hands? Say someone breaks in, say Josh’s house or John’s house (board members) what then?”
Chase asked, “The government says someone breaks into your house – you can’t plug them?”
Starr did not respond.
“And the kids running the street at night? Officer LePlante will tell you about the kids running at night. No one does nothing. At least the (local PD) can take those kids and say ‘hey, look, why aren’t you home?’ That right there, is the whole thing.”
New Berlin officials have warned of an impending COVID-19 fiscal crisis effecting not just the town, but in many rural New York State municipalities. The proposed elimination of the department would have an annual savings of just over $181,000. The board told a masked crowd of less than a dozen attendees the availability of trained staff was shrinking, and costs and state regulations expanding.
The residents who showed up all spoke against getting rid the police department.
The board’s top concern at the public hearing was not to back the proposal to abolish the department, but assure critics that is was up to the public, not them, to decide.
The town’s annual revenue is about $225,000 from sales tax and $115,000 from state aid. Due to COVID the board has been told to prepare for cuts at least equalling $68,000 this coming year, and officials think it will persist for the next several years.
“Can we get through this next year? Yes, with certain cuts, but if this continues beyond 2021 we will have to make decisions,” warned Starr.
He said the town would like to buy new trucks and resell old ones soon or else risk losing money longterm. “10-wheelers, $250,000k a piece,” he said.
“We have about half that much in our truck fund.With the cuts the state is doing, we can’t possibly go forward with buying two trucks.”
CHIPS funds and Pave NY programs help aid the town, but with those state programs also lacking money he said, “ We were doing seven miles of road, now we’re down to making only four or five miles of road.”
“Where do the funds come from? Unfortunately we are looking at the funds coming from the monies we have set aside to operate the town’s police department, which is $181,500. That would go a long way toward being able to keep the roads up and repaired and buy new trucks, at least one,” said Starr.
“It’s not that we want to do it but we have to look forward to the future as to how are we going to maintain our good roads, how will we be able to maintain our monies that we have in advance, in our savings accounts. And some of the saving accounts are dedicated to certain things. Like the trucks, this town building, if we need a new roof. This year we put in a new heating system,” said Starr.
“We do not want to cut our savings down to the bare bones to do it. It’s not just $181,000 next year, but every year after to keep your taxes down rather than raising them up.”
Starr said the town might have to break the state’s tax cap of 1.5 percent in the near future.
“Every year we’re cutting a little here and a little there, and seven years later we are cut to the point we are not going to be able to do things unless we have more money for our budget. And our budget is the police department’s budget,” he said.
Resident Kevin Christian asked how often the town replaced its DPW trucks and how long they would last. He compared them to the challenges facing the local fire departments.
“We’ve got six firetrucks that start from 1989 to 2000. We use them longer because we can’t afford to replace them.”
“The longer you go the less you’re going to get for the truck,” said Starr.
Board member John Parks said, “The maintenance alone will get to you quick.”
“But it’s also possible to go a couple more years,” said Christian.
“That is what we will have to do. Eventually our money will start coming up short. You can’t spend money you don’t have, ” said Starr.
He explained the town has relied on patterns and predicted amounts in the past, learning from experience, and changes to these patterns and habits will likely have consequences, but they might buy time.
Starr said in the end the town could end up spending more from savings or borrowing more through bonds.
Christian continued, “But even if you cut down one truck, you’re going to make up the difference to keep them involved. And keep them going, at $235,000 a truck.”
Board member Parks responded, “Those options are there. You are absolutely right. This is not something that is gonna happen just next year. This is a three-year, four-year thing we’re dealing with here. The taxes and New York State are going to be terrible for the townships for the next three to four years I feel. This is something we have to look at– the budgets we do now we have to look four or five years ahead now. If we don”t we will get into trouble.”
Another resident who did not give his name said, “Like you were saying, how much would you have to raise the taxes, though I’m sure nobody in here wants to hear that, but like how much would it really be to leave it where it is or keep them here?”
“I am not an accountant, I can’t tell you that,” said Starr.
“Well, you should have the information,” said the man.
“The Chenango County Treasurers Office sets that all up anyway.” Starr said.
“Right but if you’re talking like 2 percent, I pay more than that for my light outside of my house. If that’s the case, we could do that too,” said the man.
Another resident behind him shouted out his taxes added up to “about 41 bucks” a year for the PD. He said his water bill was $107 and asked, “That’s your water bill, what’s the price of your safety?”
“I just want to add, the reason I think we are bringing this up now is that we feel you’re not getting your money’s worth, the taxpayer, with our police department.” said board member Wendy Rifanburg.
“We have increased, We are not defunding any police department, we have increase salaries for part-time workers. We have interviewed, three times, people we thought would come work for us and it just didn’t pan out,” she said.
“We have always put money into our police department, in fact we had a brand new car on order, but it was stopped because of COVID,” said Rifanburg. “We are worried about the future and that you are not getting what you guys pay for. And because we can’t get police officers to come work for us.”
“Like, we don’t want to make this decision, I think all five of us agree we don’t want to make this decision. That’s why we put it out to the public, so you guys could help us make this decision. We know how important our police are, we back our police 100 percent, but we are not giving you guys what you deserve,” said Rifanburg. “Do we totally get rid of it and have the state police come over or do we try and keep it funded and get more workers, that’s our biggest problem, to get more staff. The plain honest truth, we cannot find staff to come work.”
“I want it to go out to vote to the public, it is a very important decision, we are trying to eliminate a department and I think this department is important enough that us five here should not make that for the whole town,” said Parks
Old patrolman asked what he thought:
At one point after the public hearing and the public had left and the regular a board meeting began, a board member asked New Berlin Officer James T. Laplante to tell them what he honestly thought.
He is an old patrolman, court officer and former NY State trooper, with nearly three decades of on the job experience. He has been recently filling in for the regular officer-in-charge of the department.
“What you need is to find some old farts like me that are retired and have some expertise because young people don’t want to work just two days a week. Full time departments pay a lot better. When I worked for the state police I made $108,000 a year,” he said.
He discussed a counter idea of hiring less staff that could work more hours with the board. “If we could swing it we could do a full time day and a full time night person,” he said.
He talked about the increasing demands of administrative work and computer programs requiring data for the state’s increasing mandates. He complained about the demonization and politicization of even good cops.
He talked about how losing the department would mean losing a real local connection to the community, and substantially increase response times.
He said the COVID restrictions had been implemented in a way that had dehumanized people and made all the above problems worse.
He said state and and local government leaders did not understand the demands of policing, or how much people are suffering from the shutdown and pandemic.
He said in the not too distant future, when his duties allowed it, he would turn in his badge for good, like a lot of fellow officers he knew had.
“Bail reform is killing us. Emperor Andrew the First, has hurt us so bad with this. It has tied our hands,” he said.
Board member Rifanburg, held up a new book of reforms given to the town by the state.
“The process involved with putting everything into SJS, just doing a simple complaint is an hour on that stupid computer. When Bob and I started out we could do everything with a crayon and a form, everything. Now they turn it into the Bataan Death March, to try and process an arrest will take three and a half hours. And if you need an arraignment on top of it, that’s fun because now they’re skyping and all this other- it’s a hassle.”
“I’m heading down because I’m fed up with how the state government is running policing in this state. It is horrifying,” said Laplante.
“The way things stand – everything leans in the direction of treating the criminal like they are a victim. Bail reform has generated untold amount of grief, people in other circumstance that would have been placed on bail but are released instead: sex offenders, burglaries, violent crimes. The public is at risk.”
A elderly resident, a woman named Teresa, was one of the few still attending the meeting. She spoke out.
“What I think is wrong with the general public is they may not be aware, we are not aware about what is going on. That, when someone breaks into my house and you take them, arrest them, and arraign them, and then, they give them an appearance ticket. And you know what? The chances of seeing that person again (the one who called police for help) are zero to one.”
“And if you have been robbed you have been violated. I was robbed, we were violated, for weeks, afterward I was finding, with that son-of-a-b---- in my house – It’s an awful feeling,” the woman told the board, ending her sentence with tears in her eyes.
“He came to my house when the alarm went off, he did an excellent job,” she said of Laplante.
The officer added, “Because of the choices made in Albany, instead of that person going to jail and sitting there, where they belong, they get an appearance ticket and they probably just go hit another house. This is constant and unbelievable.”
He warned the board the police staffing problem in New York would not get better soon. “Go to the quartermasters, the gear is piled up. Anyone who can retire is gone, there is no support.”
He offered insight on what police usually dealt with.
“A good deal of the more active, the angry, nasty calls occur in the evening. Your domestics, your fights, your drunks and whatever.”
“We want to be visible, we want to give people a sense of security. The world kinda went to s--- and they’re scared. One of the things you are going to give up in this department is community policing. The guys that work here know the people around here.”
“Here we actually get to know the local people, by talking to them by getting involved with them.”
He said the officers even helped to drop off food for a local aid agency when they could, on or off the clock. Laplante noted that a number of emergency service volunteers spoke out at the public hearing.
“They came out tonight to support us, because we support them,” he said.
The town really needs two or three reliable people, advised Laplante, instead of a handful of part timers, that currently includes a roster of 10 officers.
“We have our problems. The meth in this area is horrendous, but it just not our town, it is everywhere. We have people dropping dead from overdoses left and right,” he said.
Starr, who was also an officer for more than two decades, said officer expectations for compensation should be similar to the starting salaries of local sheriff deputies and not comparable to the state’s, which pays new officers about $65,000.
The expectations of technology and increasing state micromanagement, was beyond the board’s control and a reality many had no choice but to cope with. He said New Berlin was similar to other small departments.
Board dissent and referendum:
Later, after the public hearing the board passed a related proposal in a split vote. Local Law 2 of 2020 passed with three in favor, one against and one abstaining. The law passed and will officially strip the police department from the town’s codes and regulations.
The town clerk said the law would remove the PD from the books. “To take that step toward abolishing you need to amend the code, being the rules and regulations of the town board,” she said.
Starr, Parks and board member Roy Stockwell voted to pass the law. Josh Burchill voted no. Rifanburg abstained from the vote.
Voting no, Burchill said, “I speak for myself. I voted to get to this point so that I could hear and we could get the information out there and get feedback. The feedback I have gotten, across the board has been they do not think it is a good idea. I have not had one person come through that I have spoken too, in many different areas in this township, many different ages, and walks of life, and none of them truly think it’s a good thing to get rid of the police department.”
“For many of the reasons Jim said, we are not a department that’s out there destroying and beating people up. Yes I agree, we have a finical situation to look at but when I look at our financial situation for next year I don’t see an issue to where we can’t go forward for another year,” said Burchill.
During the vote Starr said he supported updating the town’s laws, “I think that is the only way we can go down the road legally and legitimately and allow the taxpayers make their decision for this vote. Whatever they make a decision for, we live with, but to waffle on now and go forward I think is the wrong move for the board as a whole. It we go down a ways and find we made a mistake financial or otherwise, it’s hard to come back a second time and once the public has made their voting decision we live with that decision. It’s not our fault.”