EAST LANSING, Mich — It's budget season in East Lansing, and City Officials are starting talks about where to allocate funding. But the proposed budget for next fiscal year contains some cuts that are causing concerns from some neighbors.
- In a memo to city council, City Manager Robert Belleman that the city's Independent Police Oversight (ELIPOC) and Human Rights commissions are facing cuts.
- ELIPOC Vice-Chair Kath Edsall raised concerns about the impacts the lack of funding could have.
- Belleman says the cuts are not final, and the commissions can still advocate to keep the funding before a final budget is passed next month.
WATCH: Proposed budget cuts to East Lansing's Police Oversight Commission are causing concerns among neighbors
City Manager Robert Belleman said in a budget memo that both the city's Independent Police OVersight and Human Rights Commissions are facing cuts in their expenditures in the proposed budget.
The Independent Police Oversight Commission, or ELIPOC, was created to "increase accountability of the East Lansing Police Department and strengthen conditions leading to trust in the police department by the community that it is pledged to serve."
In Belleman's memo, he says they're facing cuts to services like "Review of Past Complaints to Determine Patterns of Bias for Annual Reporting" and "Independent Review of Police Data for Annual Report".
Belleman told me those cuts were proposed because they were previously budgeted, but not used.
"There were some adjustments made to the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission budget based on what was in the budget and that had not been used in prior years," Belleman said.
ELIPOC Vice-Chair Kath Edsall, speaking with me on her own behalf, says the cuts cam to items that ELIPOC tried to use, but says logjams in the process didn't allow them to do so.
She also says the cuts would have a big impact on the commission's abilities, and says they come at a time where the department is under a microscope, following transparancey concerns after incident during welcome weekend at MSU last August, and with an open investigation into a deadly officer-involved shooting.
But Belleman tells me these cuts aren't finalized, and the commission can come to the city council to advocate for including the funding in the final budget.
"If things actually come up, that they have a vendor or service that they want to employ, we always can go back to council to get council to appropriate additional resources," Belleman said.
These are just the early stages of budget talks in the city, and neighbors can share their thoughts with city staff on Tuesday, May 12, at the public hearing about the budget. City Council is slated to approve a final budget at their final meeting of May.
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