The Madison City Council voted 12 to 8 Tuesday night in favor of a budget amendment that would add five officers to the city's police force next year.
Proponents of the bill said that while the addition of five officers will squeeze other areas of the budget, the need for additional police overrides other concerns.
\The concern now is that other departments need equal amounts of money,"" said Ald. Dorothy Borchardt, District 12. ""However, if our neighborhoods aren't safe, then nothing in the city counts.""
Ald. Matt Sloan, District 13, said he decided to support the amendment after attending listening sessions about the city's loitering ordinance two weeks ago.
""The first thing to go when we [fall behind in services provided by officers] is the relationship of the police department to the community,"" Sloan said.
However, other Council members were concerned that the already tight budget could not support five more officers.
""We've got a budget buster and we know it,"" said Ald. Warren Onken, District 3.
While a federal Community Oriented Policing Services grant provides the Madison Police Department with 75 percent of the salaries for up to 15 new officers over two more years, MPD would have to absorb the cost of those officers' salaries when the grant runs out, Assistant Police Chief Noble Wray said.
All told, seven officers would be added to the police force, as the mayor's budget allocated funds for two new positions.
Madison Mayor Sue Bauman urged the council to hire two additional officers rather than five because she did not want to inflate the budget in three years when the COPS grant runs out.
Bauman also said she could not ignore the relevant needs of other city departments.
If the city ""ties up"" its resources in the police department, the police department will lose credibility with other agencies and not be able to ""work with residents in order to make entire city safe,"" Bauman said, adding that the Council should ""put the police department's needs next to the needs of all other agencies.""
According to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, the mayor, if she sees support from alders, may attempt to veto the five-officer addition next week. To override the veto, a two-thirds majority vote in the Council would be needed.
This would represent the first budget veto of Bauman's mayoral tenure, Verveer said.
Ald. Tom Powell, District 5, said he would support the veto if the Bauman and the Council do not address his requests for establishment of a city account, an affordable housing trust fund, as well as allocation of one of the new police officers to investigate landlord tenant issues.
While these measures failed, an amendment that would allocate $17,500 in city funds for a downtown street outreach worker narrowly passed through the Council, Verveer said.
