Approved budget benefits police department

Despite the opposition of Councilmember Mike Finn, the 2012 budget for Greeley was passed at the city council meeting on Tuesday. 

During the council meeting, Tim Nash, Director of Finance, presented that the budget included an increase in salaries for the Greeley Police Department and set aside $150,000 to hire two new police officers. 

“It’s important to recognize that this salary increase is a cost savings because we were losing people to other counties,” Mayor Tom Norton said. 

Jerry Garner, Greeley Police Chief, explained that Greeley's police dispatcher salary was lower than the surrounding area. Greeley has been training police officers, but adjacent cities, like Fort Collins, would hire the officers for higher pay. 

“I fully support the pay increase. Our police and fire departments have done an outstanding job,” Councilmember Robb Casseday said. 

The salary increase for the police department wasn’t the reason Finn opposed the budget, but the two new police positions was. Finn said he didn’t think the budget increase for the officer positions was appropriate due to the current economic downturn. 

Garner said that they have needed more police officers, but they were in a hiring freeze. With the funds supporting the two positions, the hiring process will begin almost immediately. 

Finn was the only one to speak out against the budget for the following year. The few people that attended the meeting did not voice any objections to the approved $266.6 million budget.