April 29, 2021

Via Email (Mayor@syrgov.net)

Hon. Ben Walsh, Mayor

233 East Washington Street, Suite 203
Syracuse, New York 13202

Dear Mayor Walsh,

Actions speak louder than words. For the past year we have heard your administration
speak of changes to policing in Syracuse, but those words are continuously contradicted by your
administration’s actions. No more clearly is your administration’s true position on policing
shown than its recent decision to agree with almost all of the Syracuse Police Benevolent
Association’s requests prior to arbitration next month. Your decision will increase the SPD’s
budget by $15 million over the next four years while further taking resources away from parks,
recreation, youth services, and other areas that would benefit the community. Your
administration’s decision to balance this increase of SPD’s budget on the backs of the most
marginalized is unacceptable. We are writing to demand that you reverse your position.

Since last June our coalition’s call to action has been clear. The nine demands of the
People’s Agenda for Policing require a reduction of the size, scope, and power of the SPD. Such
a reduction comes from a reallocation of resources from the SPD to areas of community based
services. During and after our meeting with you on July 2, 2020, you avowed general support for
the People’s Agenda. Yet again you have reneged on your word by this week’s announcement of
your administration’s near total agreement with the PBA.

In the April 21, 2021, Syracuse.com article, “Police union and city agree on proposal that
would require new cops to live in Syracuse,” Corey Driscoll Dunham, the city’s chief operating
officer is quoted as saying, “‘There really, in our mind, wasn’t any reason to go back to the
drawing board and start all over again.’...

‘We spent a year negotiating this contract. We put a lot of time and thought into the
figures...PBA was satisfied with the provisions we’d already agreed to, so they weren’t
asking for anything in addition to what we’d already negotiated,’”
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April 29, 2021
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Only one factor of negotiation is alluded to in the article. - “incentive bonuses” will not
be made retroactive. This is a tiny emendation to a PBA contract that was voted down by the
Common Council by a vote of 1-8. Dunham’s reverential attitude toward the PBA is a distasteful
reminder that your administration values its relationship to the PBA over its relationship to the
residents of Syracuse. Let’s be clear, Mayor: you are agreeing to a contract rejected by the
elected members of the Common Council and also by a large contingent of the voters of
Syracuse.

Adding to our concern is the recent audit which found that the SPD’s policy of allowing
officers to not work during the pandemic cost taxpayers at least $300,000.00. As that audit found
this policy was never put in writing, cost additional undetermined amounts of money because it
allowed officers to work overtime instead of calling those into work who were on-call, and you
and your office were not consulted. Now despite the SPD furthering emptying the city coffers
during a global pandemic, you are rewarding the SPD with an increase in funding.

These decisions erase a year’s worth of protest and organizing and eviscerate a year’s
worth of collaborative work to imagine and re-imagine a better and safer Syracuse. Mayor
Walsh, we urge you to retract these statements, pause the process and stick to the agreements you
made last summer. Now is the time to make it clear where you stand: with the PBA or with the
citizens of Syracuse.

The City budget must not be dominated and directed by the concerns of the SPD and
must not be decided behind closed doors. We continue to demand a true participatory budget
process that allows the community to meaningfully comment and share their ideas beyond the
inadequate budget tool contained within your June Executive Order. Otherwise your
administration’s public comments and actions show that the Executive Order was meaningless
and merely performative.

Again the People’s Agenda coalition seeks a reduction in the SPD budget. We seek to
reallocate funds to mental health workers, counselors, social workers, crisis intervention teams,
and other responses needed by our community. The process to meet this reallocation must be
community led and truly participatory.

Our demands have been made clear. Your administration’s actions have also been clear.
If it is your intent to value the PBA over the citizenry, as it appears, then you should do nothing.
But, if as we hope, you are ready to accept this task of leadership, you must return to the
negotiation table, enter arbitration making it clear that the SPD budget will be reduced not
increased, and begin to engage in a community lead participatory budget process moving
towards a transformational change to policing in Syracuse.

Yours sincerely,

SPAARC
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April 29, 2021
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Cc:

Common Council (via email)