The Albany Community Police Review Board says its funding has been shorted once again in the proposed 2025 city budget.
Mayor Kathy Sheehan, a third-term Democrat, is proposing a $221 million spending plan in which the Police Review Board receives about $683,000, a roughly 15% decrease. Its current budget is $804,000. Board Chair Nairobi Vives:
"What we learned during the presentation from the budget director is that that decrease was just some rough math they did in considering that we would no longer be contracting with the law school," said Vives. "What it's important for the community to know, and what we shared to the Common Council, is that we are in a process where we're losing the support of an entity that we've had for over two decades now. We had, historically, one full time staff member, and more recently, the help of consultants to make this transition efficient and effective. We'll need to continue to rely on those consultants that we have and try to build up staff to replace some of the support that we have from the law school. So this is not the time to be decreasing our budget."
Vives says keeping the funding level will maintain the board’s effectiveness, transparency and maintain its standard of professionalism.
CPRB Investigative Chair John Levendosky says the request is justified. "The amount that we do with what we have is, in my opinion, pretty good value for money. I'm going to the city. We're hoping to expand that. Once they see the necessity of what we do and the efficiency in which we do it, I think they'll better understand what we're asking for with regards to our budget, and the relationship, the fiscal relationship with, will evolve to a point where they kind of understand, better understand where this money is going to and how it's being used, and the actual cost of the necessity of things," Levendosky said.
Tom Hoey of the 15th ward chairs the Common Council's Public Safety Committee. He says it’s important to recognize there is a need to keep the funding at level. Hoey expects the process to entail negotiation, much the same as it did last year.
"I think the city is thinking, well, since we're going to house you and we don't have to pay Albany Law School, we don't have to give you as much," said Hoey. "But they were planning to use that extra money to hire investigators and to help with the flow and to have office staff to be able to man the community police Review Board. So we are the council feels that it's important that we give them the same funding we did last year, and will recommend to the mayor that we want to see that."
Hoey adds he’s “confident that the mayor will do the right thing.”
Mayor Sheehan hasn't commented but did approve last year's increase.
The CPRB is an independent body that reviews complaints alleging misconduct by officers of the Albany Police Department. It meets monthly.
The Common Council is scheduled to take up the budget increase when it meets on November 18. The budget must be passed by the end of November.
