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Felinton Prepared
to Cut Police Force by 29 positions
For
HNN by Art Harvath
Huntington--People once again packed city council chambers to hear Mayor Felinton’s proposed 2001-2002 budget cuts to a special session of the city council Monday evening. Most of the crowd consisted of police officers and their families.
The police department was the hardest hit with proposed personnel cuts of 20 police officers and 9 civilian employees. The council took no action tonight on the mayor’s proposals.
“The last thing I ever wanted to do was to be in the position we’re in right now,” said Felinton. “We asked not once, not twice but three times in the last year for revenue increases.” The mayor added that in this fiscal year they have cut $3.7 million. Another $1.3 million needs to be cut from this year’s budget to balance it. This must be done by June 30th. Felinton also proposed municipal fee increases as a way to prevent layoffs.
“We’ve got to the point where we’ve gone beyond bare bones,” said Felinton. He said the Public Works Department will lose 16 positions. “They’re in the street department, which is already a fraction of what it was,” added the mayor.
Feelings ran high as police spokesmen told the council that this problem was long in coming and nothing was done to prevent it. They expressed the willingness of the FOP and members of the Police Pension Fund to sit down with the mayor and council to discuss possible solutions
.
Councilman Cal Kent spoke against raising fees only. He said he would
support a combinatio of fee increases coupled with layoffs.
Total layoffs are 45, with 16 in the Public Works, and 29 in the Police
Department.
