Last Tuesday’s Newburgh City Council meeting was packed with police officers, firefighters, Department of Public Works employees, and supporters of the three departments. A majority of the audience were there to protest the City Manager’s proposed budget for the 2020 fiscal year.

During the presentation of the proposed budget, it was confirmed that 14 percent of the Police Department and 16 percent of the Fire Department are proposed to be laid off.

“To approve the layoff of a single police officer would set our Police Department back by five years,” said Kevin Lahar, President for the Sergeants and Lieutenants in the City of Newburgh Police Department.

“This is not the budget that I wanted to propose and quite frankly, it’s not the budget I thought I’d be proposing ten months ago when I took this job,” said City Manager Joe Donat. “However, it’s the budget that needs to be proposed.”

Mayor Torrance Harvey emphasized the budget is not final yet.

The 2020 proposed budget is Donat and Comptroller Todd Venning’s first budget to have been proposed to the council.

The current city budget is at $49,930,278. 70 percent of that budget is comprised of personnel and benefits. To compensate, Donat’s budget would include a $925,329 decrease in funding for the Police Department, and a $930,789 decrease in funding for the Fire Department. The Department of Public Works is proposed to only receive six percent of funding.

A hiring freeze and reductions to overtime funding are also suggested within the proposed cuts. Overtime in total for the Police and Fire Department will be reduced by 20 percent. The Police Department had requested $1.4 million in overtime for this year, and the Fire Department requested $1 million. It is proposed that the Police Department only receives $1.1 million, and the Fire Department only receives $800,000.

According to Lahar, reducing personnel would result in an increase to the amount of paid overtime. “You have decreased morale, increased anxiety, and have forced good cops to look elsewhere,” said Lahar, as he directly addressed the council.

The City of Newburgh Police Department offers one of the lowest paying salaries in this area. As a result, Newburgh struggles with officers leaving to look for jobs in higher paying municipalities. For many, the proposed cuts may only add insult to injury.

For many, decreases in crime can be attributed to the active role that the Police Department plays in the community. Ricardo Rivera, the Police Benevolent Association President for the City of Newburgh Police Department, explained that in 2015 there were 55 blows to body shootings. Last year there were only eight. Rivera found the proposed numbers to be “sickening.”

“It’s just very upsetting,” said Rivera. “Just something the city cannot deal with, you know, reduction in public safety.” Rivera worries that a reduction in public safety will result in an increase in crime.

According to a statement put out last Thursday by Brendan Hogan, President of The Newburgh City Firefighters Association, a decrease in firefighters “will have a dramatic impact on the safety of our community and the women and men trained to protect each of our families and one another.”

“It is our hope to work with the city manager and the elected city council to identify an alternative to a shortsighted proposal that is a gamble, with consequences so severe, and laden with risk, it is neither reasonable or appropriate. In fact, it is reckless,” said Hogan.

More than once the council was confronted with criticism by residents. “You’re [personnel] all being used. Your very dangerous jobs are essentially being used as a bargaining chip in this administration’s bid to raise taxes from homeowners without any accountability,” said Martha White, as she directly addressed the audience and the council. “Most dangerous thing here tonight is the smoke they’re trying to blow up your ass,” finished White to claps and cheers.

Councilwoman Karen Mejia’s face was a mixture of sadness and anger at the end of the presentation. After a short silence, Mejia addressed the budget during the council’s final comments. “I am completely speechless about these numbers. I have more questions,” said Mejia. “How? How do we go from last year to this year?”

There will be a public hearing for 2020 budget on November 12. The official budget for the 2020 fiscal year will be adopted on November 26.