Letter: Danbury Democrats Support Fully Funding Police and Fire

"Danbury Democrats Support Fully Funding Police and Fire Budgets not Republicans,"

by Richard W. MolinaroCity Councilman - 7th Ward

To The Editor:

The current administration along with the Republican candidate for mayor claim that they fully support Danbury’s first responders, but the facts show otherwise. The city’s Republican administration has been lying to us.

In our capacity as City Councilmen/women, we are placed on ad hoc committees during our yearly budget cycle. Councilman Farley Santos was placed on the Public Safety ad hoc committee which was responsible for reviewing the 2020-2021 budget requests from several departments including our Police and Fire Departments.

After these requests were received and reviewed, the administration refused to fulfill both the Police and Fire Department’s budget requests, especially for training programs.

During these proceedings, I along with Councilman Roberto Alves, Councilman Frank Salvatore, and Councilman Farley Santos were the only Councilmembers to ask questions both in meetings and behind the scenes about this decision and were the only ones who advocated to fully fund our Police and Fire budgets. But our requests and questions fell on the administration’s deaf ears.

At a time where it is both responsible and prudent to provide every training possible to our first responders, not only for the safety of our community members, but also for the well-being of all our Police and Fire personnel, the current Republican administration made the conscious choice to gut the training budget line items and went on to underfund the reasonable requests that both the Police and Fire Chiefs made.

Our city’s first responders do the best with what they’re given, there’s no doubt about that. But there are consequences that come along with gutting budgets and underfunding departments critical to the success, health, wellbeing of our community.

The FBI Bureau of Statistics has said that Danbury should have over 200 effective strength police officers, and yet we only have 132. The International City/County Management Association’s ratio of full-time officers ranges from 1.8 per 1,000 residents to 2.6 per 1,000 residents, with an average ratio of 2.5 full-time officers per 1,000 residents.

The truth is that in a city of 86,518 residents, having 132 effective strength officers results in an overworked police force. It’s not the Police Chief’s or his officers’ fault. Danbury’s current population requires between 155 to 216 police officers. This doesn’t even take into account the more than dozen officers who could retire at any time.

It is wholly irresponsible and misleading for the administration and the Republican candidate for mayor to assert that they support our Police and Fire Departments while at the same time underfunding, understaffing, and overworking our first responders. My colleagues and I are proud of our Police officers, and we’ll continue to advocate for the support they deserve.

Richard W. Molinaro
City Councilman - 7th Ward
Hoyt St.
Danbury