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Council corrects police salary totals, delays related personnel budget items to committee
Summary
The council approved an ordinance correcting police salary totals to reflect the department's table of organization and committed several related ordinances to committee for verification with the deputy chief and budget director.
The Utica Common Council approved Proposed Ordinance No. 25, a budget correction that reduces the police uniform division salaries figure from $10,599,285 to $10,358,674 (a reduction of $240,611). The council record states the reduction "is not removing any actual positions" but corrects an arithmetic error so the salaries reflect 65 positions in the department.
Council members cited confirmations from Deputy Chief Ed Noonan and the budget director that the ordinance corrects errors in the submitted budget. One councilmember said on the record: "these were confirmed by our deputy chief, Ed Noonan and the budget director," and the clerk recorded the vote as "5 a's adopted." Some councilmembers expressed continuing unease that lines were running negative and requested the controller's office and the deputy chief appear before the committee to provide a formal explanation; the council moved Ordinances 26, 27 and 28 into committee for further review.
Why it matters: the correction affects the department's reported salary totals and the calculation of the city's overall personnel costs. Council members said they want departmental and controller confirmation to ensure payroll and position counts reconcile before the final budget adoption.
Next steps: councilmembers committed related ordinances to committee and asked that the deputy chief and the budget director appear at a committee meeting to confirm the table of organization and year-end settlement procedures.
