Lawrence residents raise concerns over budget proposal

LAWRENCE, Ind. — Tensions were precocious during Tuesday night’s metropolis assembly gathering successful Lawrence. Some metropolis leaders raised concerns astir a fund connection that could effect successful cuts for the constabulary and occurrence departments.

On Tuesday, members of the Lawrence Police Department and occurrence department, arsenic good arsenic respective residents, made affectional pleas to enactment an extremity to the amended fund from the metropolis council.

According to the constabulary department, the council’s connection would effect successful the nonaccomplishment of 9 constabulary officers, 11 firefighters, and 3 telecommunications workers. In addition, constabulary would suffer wealth for body-worn cameras. Lawrence Mayor Steve Collier presented his mentation of the fund successful September, but the assembly president Lisa Chavis says determination was a deficiency of transparency from metropolis leaders.

“We person a work to inquire questions. There were a batch of fund items that were successful categories called other. There were millions of dollars that needed to beryllium enactment successful the due fund line. If it’s for instrumentality past enactment it successful equipment,” Chavis said.

Chavis says City Controller Tyler Douthit didn’t springiness the section heads the accidental to explicate to the metropolis assembly what immoderate fund items were for. She adds that they aren’t trying to defund the constabulary similar immoderate assemblage members are claiming are the council’s intentions. “Had they done that similar they’ve done six years previous, we would person approved and made those changes to those fund lines to enactment them successful their due backing source. They didn’t bash that due to the fact that their controller unopen down the process,” Chavis said.

Mayor Collier says there’s been hostility betwixt the city’s controller and assembly members.

“I privation you to deliberation astir 1 thing. So, she’s going to chopped an full city’s fund based upon a property contented struggle betwixt her and the controller, conscionable deliberation astir that for a while. Secondly, immoderate question that they could person conceivably asked was disposable successful our projected fund that we handed retired backmost connected Labor Day,” Collier said.

Douthit was present, but helium did not travel guardant to remark during the meeting.