City Stands Behind Their Choice to Disband Monticello Police Department.

If y'all haven't heard, the Monticello Police Department was disbanded by the city due to budgetary issues.

Read the rest for yourself:

In an action packed regular meeting Tuesday evening during the Citizen’s Input portion of the agenda, the Monticello City Council listened to a barrage of comments condemning their decision to disband the police department.

Approximately 150 concerned citizens and the CNN cable news channel were present, along with Mayor Glenn Newsome and all members of the Council.

Juanita Davis, President of the local chapter of the NAACP told the Council they had dealt a great disservice to the community by disbanding the police force and that no consideration was given by them before taking this action.

She also questioned the accuracy of the city’s budget and called for an internal audit with citizen input. Ms. Davis went on to demand the council rescind its order to abandon the police department.

Nicky Womack also questioned the integrity of the budget and said the council could have cut in other areas instead of disbanding the police department, which was self serving. Ms. Womack also demanded the decision be rescinded and a vote taken to reinstate the department.

Kimberly Witcher said there is no one to direct traffic at the schools now and it takes twice as long to get your child to and from school.

Tibia Williams said since they cut the police department her 15 year old daughter can’t sleep at night and is afraid to go out. Ms. Williams also said she was begging for the department to be reinstated and that she felt she had been abandoned by the council.

Lottie Norris said she has lived here for 75 years and never thought she would live to see our police department snatched away from us, and that a large percent of our citizens are older and need the police. She went on to say we have to find a way to keep our police department because this is bad and it looks bad on us. “Please try to get our police force back and don’t let Monticello go down like this,” she said.

At the conclusion of the Citizen’s Input Councilperson Molly Pompey immediately made a motion to reinstate the department with eight officers and one staff person and that the Power Cost Adjustment be appraised each month by the Council.

Councilperson Bryan Standifer seconded the motion and the mayor called for discussion.

Councilperson Katherine Alexander asked Mrs. Pompey how much her proposal would cost and where would the funds to pay for it come from? She then said Mrs. Pompey and the mayor pro tem had served on a budget committee with her and that she had been screaming about this problem for a year and a half, and it was not something new, that it was $750,000.

She added that the council could tax the citizens or raise their utilities, or they could cut the police department. Ms. Alexander went on to say she would be willing for anyone to inspect the budget, and that if anyone wanted an internal audit it would cost $19,000.
[read more]