BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG -- Ogdensburg’s budget will include 18 police officers for now, but that could change before the final iteration.

A list of amendments to the city budget put forward by the city manager based on council recommendations failed to pass after Mayor Jeffrey M. Skelly, Nichole Kennedy, Dan Skamperle and Michael Powers voted it down Monday.

The unusual alliance was not grounded in common interests. The mayor opposed adding more officers to the budget, while the others felt that adding just two was not enough.

The amendments would have given the police department 20 officers, two more than the current budget includes, but one fewer than Interim Police Chief Mark Kearns sought.

The decision came as a surprise as Councilors Steve Fisher, Deputy Mayor John Rishe and Bill Dillabough all supported two additional officers, breaking away from their tendency to vote in unison with the mayor.

However, councilors Kennedy, Powers and Skamperle were all seeking a minimum of three officers added to the budget; all three indicated that anything else would leave the city vulnerable.

Rishe said he believed adding two, rather than three, was a good compromise and said that he believed that’s what the city could afford this year.

Meanwhile, Kennedy, Powers and Skamperle said they believed public safety was more important than the 10 percent tax break.

The mayor did not vocally support adding any police officers above 18 and said that while he’d like to revisit the number of officers next year, he did not believe there was adequate funding for the endeavor this year.

In the end the mayor joined those seeking to add three officers to the budget in order to defeat that plan to add two.

Upon the final vote, John Rishe sarcastically congratulated Powers, Kennedy and Skamperle for voting to keep police staffing at 18.

Kennedy noted that there is still time to add more officers to the budget, however time is running out as a final budget must be adopted before the end of the year.

The issue is likely to be addressed again at the Dec. 13 meeting.