NEWBURGH HEIGHTS, Ohio — Clashes continued between Village Council and the mayor in Newburgh Heights during a special meeting Wednesday night.
"You're making no sense, in my point of view," Councilmember Dorene Kray said.
The meeting was called to discuss help for the police department, a move the mayor disagreed with.
"Council, this is your decision," Mayor Gigi Traore declared. "It's been read; you all need to move forward. I am not a part of this."
"So this is punishment for letting the housing and building department go?" Councilmember Linda Giersz added. "We're going to let the police department not have the officer that they desperately need?"
In September, Council approved legislation to order layoffs in the village, getting rid of the housing and building department amid a roughly $2.5 million budget deficit. The mayor said that move saved the city $14,000.
Wednesday night, Council appointed a new police officer and approved overtime pay for the chief, who said he's also been working patrol due to short staffing.
"I would rather them bring back our housing and building department, repeal the layoffs," Traore told 3News afterward. "I have requested that on several occasions."
Traore claims those layoffs have been detrimental to village operations.
"I have a long list of emails from home buyers, home sellers, contractors, vendors who are all looking to do work here in the village," she said. "But they can't, because we don't have a housing and building department. But [it's] also impacting how we bring in development."
But Council and the police chief said this is necessary to protect public safety. This hire makes 10 officers on the department, with six spots left open.
"I do agree that we need a housing department, but housing doesn't affect public safety," Chief John Majoy explained. "And so the people here, they want police protection, and we have a response time of three minutes or less to emergencies, and that has nothing to do with the building department."
According to Majoy, with recent resignations, this new police role was already budgeted for, and is vital for proactive policing to combat crime.
"Stolen cars are certainly on the rise; we've seen a lot of those," he said. "We've seen a lot drug offenses, weapon offenses, we're pretty much at an all-time high of vehicles that are fleeing from us, which is really concerning."
Majoy says it will take a couple of weeks for new Officer Tyler Dankovich to start. He hopes to hire more as soon as Council approves it.