Pelham Police Protest Layoffs

In an effort to save about $100,000, the Pelham Board of Trustees proposed cutting a police officer, but cops say that reducing the force to 24 members could jeopardize residents’ safety.

While the board was able to raise the tax rate to 8.35 percent, instead of the originally proposed 11.7 percent for next year, board members said that the budget is still quite high and requires restructuring. To get the process going, members asked each department to finds areas to cut in a range of 10 percent, but the police department only suggested eliminating the number crossing guards, said Trustee Geoff Lewis. Since the board needed to find more savings, and the Village has functioned with 24 police officers in the past, it proposed eliminating a police officer.

“We looked around and in terms of staffing, we’ve had 23, 24 [in the past],” said Lewis. “We usually have a sergeant and three men out and half the time, there’s a fifth person on the shift.”

Despite the fact that the force has functioned with 24 cops, the department is concerned with how efficiently it will be able to do its job with less manpower, especially considering that three men have also recently retired.

“We really can’t afford to lose another officer,” remarked Danny Green, who’s served in Pelham for nearly six years and is the president of the Police Benevolent Association. “Public safety should be first and foremost on the board’s mind. Police officers should be the last thing cut, not the first.”

Rather than hastily lay off an officer, the department would like to at least try to negotiate an incentive package, the way the Pelham Manor police department did, Green said. Offering a high-paid sergeant, for example, an opportunity to enter early retirement in exchange for more health benefits is one way to save a lower-paid officer from getting laid off.

“We’ve already been hit,” Green noted. “They phased out three positions already, and it’s just too much. It’s just not safe.”

Lewis, however, noted that such negotiations are strictly a union matter.

The Board of Trustees meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall to deliberate this topic and other Village issues and will vote on the budget on April 26.