London\u2019s police chief, fire chief and public works director were among those who testified about the potential impact of the budget cuts.<\/p>\n
Police and fire departments face major reductions<\/p>\n
Acting Police Chief Bobby Day said the ordinance will reduce his staff from 34 to 20 officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s 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,\u201d Day said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe 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,\u201d Hale said.<\/p>\n
Public works operations at risk<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people are going to leave and it\u2019s going to be very hard to get someone to come back in here, with the current situation,\u201d Rawlings said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Judge Samuel Spalding called the entire situation a mess during Monday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve 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,\u201d Spalding said.<\/p>\n
The judge said he was hopeful both sides could still reach an agreement to prevent problems from taking effect later this week.<\/p>\n
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