Urbana City Council to vote on contentious police budget

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — Urbana's City Council is set to vote on the annual budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 on Monday night.

The original budget proposal for the police department sat around $16.5 million and would have included funding for new technology and increased staffing. But hours of public comments over two nights last week led to the council working on additional alternatives.

During last Monday's meeting, many community members questioned the need for more patrol officers. Meanwhile, Chief Larry Boone said his officers are burnt out from working overtime.

There were several community comments about delaying police funding until results from a public safety review performed by consulting firm BerryDunn were released.

Various proposals from Monday's agenda packet include:

A proposal to include no increases in Police Department staffing would result in a savings of about $899,000 on an annual basis, and $806,000 in one-time costs. This does not include the cost for a Social Worker, which has already been reallocated to contractual services pursuant to City Council direction.
A proposal to include a total of four patrol positions; two of which would backfill new Deputy Chief and Training Sergeant positions, and two of which would be additional patrol officers. This would result in a recurring reduction of about $103,000 and a one-time reduction of $22,000.
Adding two positions to backfill the new Deputy Chief and Training Sergeant positions, without additional patrol staffing, would result in a recurring reduction of $309,000 and a one-time reduction of $66,000.
Reducing staffing for the Community Engagement Team pilot project to two officers would result in a one-time reduction of $103,000. The amount of fund balance assigned for the second and third years of the pilot program could also be reduced by approximately $206,000.
Reduce/eliminate staffing for the Community Service Responders (2 FTE total) that would result in up to $225,000 in recurring savings and up to $46,000 in one-time savings (not straw-polled).

Monday's council meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the City of Urbana building on 400 South Vine Street.