No one thinks the Village of Cobleskill can afford to cut its police force.
Not Schoharie County Sheriff John Bates.
Not Cobleskill Police Chief Mike O’Brien.
And not even Mark Galasso, the trustee who suggested it as a way to hold off a 16.5 percent tax hike.
Arguing the village is already paying for the Sheriff’s Department through county taxes and receiving no coverage, Mr. Galasso had suggested cutting a shift of officers when deputies are on duty.
But Sheriff Bates said he doesn’t have the deputies to spare.
“With the staffing I have, it would be absolutely impossible,” he said. I’m down three officers myself—and I’m responsible for the entire county.”
Sheriff Bates said he’d have no trouble finding work for three to four more officers of his own.
Already, he said, the worsening economy is meaning more calls for thefts and burglaries.
“Chief O’Brien and I talk all the time,” Sheriff Bates added. “We’re both seeing tremendous activity. This isn’t the time to be cutting.”
After meeting with Chief O’Brien, Mr. Galasso said Friday that he agrees.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s off the table for the ’09 budget,” he said.
We have to ease the burden as much as possible without eliminating services. But longterm, we have to look at doing things differently—and that means with the police too.”
Tax increases of 10 percent a year are unsustainable, Mr. Galasso argued; unless the village can find a way to share services with its neighbors, he said, there will be no alternative but to cut services.
For now, Mr. Galasso said, he believes the village can whittle down the budge t through fuel and other savings.
He’s also proposing eliminating trustee salaries of $10,000 a year.
But in the long-term, he said, everything, from selling services outside the village to getting a bigger share of sales tax back from the county, will have to be on the table.
“We’ve talked these things to death for years. We need to develop a greater sense of urgency… We need to raise an awareness of the immediacy of the situation. I hope we can get our ducks in a row.”
Though Chief O’Brien appreciates the village’s dilemma, he said eliminating even one of his eight patrol officers will have a disastrous effect.
“The Sheriff’s Department helps us on a regular basis already,” he said. “We’re already struggling to get the job done. Our numbers are staggering.
“The need and public support is there. We’re just trying to do our job.”