Albany Common Councilors have voted to approve raises for some city employees.
The Council passed resolutions Monday approving agreements involving police and blue collar workers in which $14 million in American Rescue Plan funding will be tapped to satisfy contracts with the unions.
During a public comment period, some residents expressed concern over that funding mechanism, as did some councilors. Gabriella Romero, who represents the 6th ward, told the panel that during the session she'd been receiving DMS and text messages from Albany residents "from all wards" questioning giving police officers millions of dollars in retroactive pay.
"I cannot in good conscience approve compensation for fellow city public servants that have committed violence against others,” said Romero, who cited the 2018 police shooting of Ellazar Williams that left Williams paralyzed from the waist down. She also spoke of another man who had been beaten by police.
"In addition, just last year, another city employee was caught on camera saying that Black people were the worst race," Romero said. "This officer and the officers that I mentioned before will be awarded back pay under this contract and this agreement that we're voting on."
Romero added she was upset and frustrated.
"...it's been told to me that if we don't give these back pay to these bad apples, that we open ourselves up for litigation," said Romero.
The resolution passed 13 to 2. Romero was joined in dissent by 2nd ward Councilor Derek Johnson, who reminded the panel he is a first cousin of Dontay Ivy, a mentally ill man shot by Albany Police in 2015.
"I don't look at APD as being responsible for my cousin's demise," said Johnson. "So when I don't support this, this bill is not because I'm anti-APD. I'm anti-this process."
Johnson said he would have liked more time to discuss the matter with his constituents. He also cast the NO vote against blue collar raises, which passed 14 to 1.
"I'm just uncomfortable with the fact that we're using these monies to play catch up and moving forward, it isn't going to automatically be the fix that we're going to need to sustain some of these raises," Johnson said. "I think that our city deserves to have leadership that's planning for, you know, what's going on day to day, month to month, year to year with our workers."
Common Council President Corey Ellis says there's a bit of misconception about distribution of the ARP funding, being used to restore the city's fund balance, which is actually the source of the money for the raises.
"It was rephrasing and you know, communicating in a way where our citizens understood how this funding was allocated and how it was brought forward," Ellis said. "I think that was an issue. Not a big issue, but just an issue of people understanding how the money, how we came about, how the city came about the money and things of that nature. Just the communications issue. I think once people and council members as well, once the new council members were able to understand they really understood why, why the funding sources, the way it was done, to make sure our blue collar workers and our police officers got settled their contract and got and got the salaries and wages they bargained and negotiate over."
The police pay raise is retroactive to 2016.
