Dear Editor,<\/p>\n
The Owego Police Benevolent Association (PBA) is comprised of the police officers and police sergeants of the Village Police Department. Its mission is to represent its members in collective bargaining and their employment with the Village and to promote the good and welfare of the community in which its members serve. The PBA is constrained, in carrying out these missions, to respond to the Mayor\u2019s recent public statements and letters in which he criticizes the PBA for not signing on to the Village\u2019s efforts to abolish the Police Department.<\/p>\n
Mayor May states in his Dec. 26, 2016 letter to the Pennysaver that the PBA would \u201cnot even consider the consolidation effort.\u201d There are two factual errors in this statement. First, the Mayor and Board are not considering a \u201cconsolidation\u201d between the Village and Sheriff\u2019s office. They are instead proposing to abolish the Village Police Department and give all control over policing in the Village to the Sheriff. <\/p>\n
Second, what the PBA told the Mayor was that no decision on abolition should be made at this time, based upon an opinion from a municipal economist who advised the PBA that the Village\u2019s current financial condition could not be assessed. That is because the Village had failed to file the required state reports and existing financial reports are inaccurate according to the Village\u2019s own auditor. As advised by the PBA\u2019s economist, the Village should not make any significant decisions about the Police Department, or any Village service for that matter, without accurate and up to date information. Nonetheless, available records that do exist, opined the economist, show that the Village is in good financial condition. <\/p>\n
Most importantly, however, it is not for the PBA to make the decision for Village taxpayers and residents as to the future of the Police Department and for Mayor May to throw that burden on the PBA, as he suggests in his letter to the Pennysaver, is just plain wrong. It is correct that the PBA opposes abolition of the Village Police Department, despite, as Mayor May writes, there would be the opportunity for higher salaries, more advancement and improved benefits. Members of the PBA believe that the Village benefits from a local force where it knows its police officers, controls its operations and focus. There is no guarantee that PBA members will remain policing the Village or that the Village will continue to pay the Sheriff\u2019s Department for dedicated service after an initial time period.<\/p>\n
There are many factors that the voters will have to consider in deciding whether to abolish its local police, but that should be and is their decision, not the PBA\u2019s. And it shouldn\u2019t be the Village Board\u2019s alone, either. The voters should insist that any Board vote to abolish the Police Department be made subject to mandatory referendum so that the voters do not have to bear the burden of distributing petitions required for a permissive referendum.<\/p>\n
Finally, the public should be aware that the Board\u2019s assault on the Police Department continues. The 2016-2017 budget includes four police officer positions, one police sergeant and the Chief of Police. The Board has taxed Village taxpayers for these six positions, since they were all included in that budget. However, a police officer recently resigned due to his uncertain future here, and the Board has refused to fill the position. It is planning to vote to cut the position, because it says it must \u201cavoid enacting a budget placing a tax increase upon Village residents.\u201d That makes no sense since this position has been budgeted and paid for by Village taxpayers and the next budget will not even go into effect until Aug. 1, 2017. <\/p>\n
Taxpayers and residents should insist that the Board fill that position now. <\/p>\n
Yours truly, <\/p>\n
Thomas Woodburn, President<\/p>\n
Owego Police Benevolent Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Editor, The Owego Police Benevolent Association (PBA) is comprised of the police officers and police sergeants of the Village Police Department. Its mission is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"yoast_head":"\n