OGDENSBURG, NY—City Council approved an amended resolution that spared the Fire Department of cuts and kept the city assessor in place.
The resolution, passed on a 4-3 vote, includes the layoff of four police officers, a 40 percent reduction of police overtime, the layoff of two administrative positions in the Recreation Department and the elimination of a housing inspector position.
Mayor Jeffery M. Skelly, councilors John Rishe, William B. Dillabough and Steven M. Fisher voted in favor of the resolution. Councilors Michael B. Powers, Nichole L. Kennedy and Daniel E. Skamperle voted against it.
The vote was the culmination of a nearly four-hour video conference meeting in which around 40 people spoke and a dozen pieces of correspondence were read. All speakers and all correspondence expressed views that were against the resolution.
The theme of the night was “this is not the time.” Speaker after speaker cited the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to keep the city’s police and fire departments intact.
“This resolution is not good for the city of Ogdensburg,” city resident James McCarthy said. “You’re taking away safety and security of all the citizens to appease a certain group of people.”
There were reports from councilors throughout the meeting of people having a hard time accessing the meeting.
Ogdensburg City Clerk Cathy Jock said that 800 people registered to attend and that at one point 533 people were actually logged into the meeting. Several people who wanted to speak could not due to technical shortcomings.
The meeting had been rescheduled from last week, when the Gotomeeting.com platform the city was using was overwhelmed by requests to attend.
Tamara Bradley, who helped organize a demonstration on the sidewalks around City Hall before the meeting, is president of the New York State Nurses Association at Claxton-Hepburn.
“This is not the time to plan cuts and furloughs,” Ms. Bradley said. “In the time of a pandemic we need to keep our frontline workers employed. There is government funding available through the CARE Act, stimulus, state aid and federal funding to help our communities affected by COVID.”
Many speakers asked councilors to consider tabling the resolution and to spend time talking with department heads and union reps to come up with a solution that did not include layoffs.
After listening to constituents for more than three hours, Mr. Fisher introduced the amendment that spared firefighters and the assessor.
Mr. Skamperle declared that the resolution was illegal and violated the city charter section on the limits of council. He also said that he attempted to get a ruling from the city attorney but was thwarted by the lack of a quorum. Mr. Skamperle snapped loudly at Mr. Skelly when he tried to interrupt him, which caused Mr. Skelly to giggle and Mr. Skamperle to seethe.
“I think it is pretty crystal clear that it violates the charter,” Mr. Skamperele said.
He also said he requested the attorney be present for the meeting but again. could not because he could not get a consensus.
Mr. Powers said that he too felt the resolution was illegal and vowed legal action if it was approved.
Mr. Rishe said that the police cuts were not that bad because two of the cuts were to officers still in the academy that were hired after the election but before the new board took office.
“We’re still going to have 24 police officers,” Mr. Rishe said. “We are going to be safe, people.”
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