LONDON, Ky. (WKYT) – A judge will decide by late Tuesday night whether amendments to London’s city budget will stand after more than 80 city workers sued their city council.
Hours of arguments and testimony were heard Monday in a Laurel County courtroom as 86 workers challenged budget amendments they say will devastate city services.
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London’s police chief, fire chief and public works director were among those who testified about the potential impact of the budget cuts.
Police and fire departments face major reductions
Acting Police Chief Bobby Day said the ordinance will reduce his staff from 34 to 20 officers.
“There’s going to be a delay in response times. We go from 6 detectives to 2 detectives, the quality of the investigation is going to go down,” Day said.
Fire Chief Donnie Hale said his department will also suffer greatly from the budget amendments. Hale testified that several conversations with council members were confrontational and threatening.
“She goes into me, the need to stay out of politics. If there is dirt on my hands I am going to be done when the mayor is gone. Supposed to be gone soon,” Hale said.
Public works operations at risk
Public Works Director Phillip Rawlings said his entire department may not be able to operate under the budget cuts, affecting everything from snow removal to garbage pickup.
“These people are going to leave and it’s going to be very hard to get someone to come back in here, with the current situation,” Rawlings said.
The attorney for the city council argued that the city has too many employees and that millions of dollars in garbage funds were used to pay for other things.
Judge Samuel Spalding called the entire situation a mess during Monday’s hearing.
“We’ve got fire alarms being pulled at council meetings. And I guess everyone inside was ignoring them. We have people who at one point were friends wiring each other up to record conversations to use in court,” Spalding said.
The judge said he was hopeful both sides could still reach an agreement to prevent problems from taking effect later this week.
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