BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Erie County Legislature held its one and only public hearing regarding the 2024 budget Thursday night.
Dozens of county residents spoke at the meeting, many of them advocating that the Erie County Sheriff's Office not receive a $31M increase in its budget.
"We no longer want to see the haves and the have nots the way it has been,' said Jerome Wright. "As a matter of fact, this community says that status quo has got to go."
County Executive Mark Poloncarz is proposing the Erie County Sheriff's Office budget will increase to $181M in 2024.
ECSO intends to use the funds towards a new helicopter, as well as create at least a dozen new positions within the office.
Advocates that spoke ahead of the public hearing like senior community researcher at the Partnership for the Public Good, Colleen Kristich, want to see the money used for other services.
"We need our legislators to hear our voices. And to put that money into the pockets of residents, not the sheriff's office," Kristich said. "We want legislators to listen to us listen to the community, and what we want. is not a new helicopter."
Many of those who spoke during the public hearing called for the legislature to use funds allocated for the Sheriff's Office to create a community responder model of response.
A CRM is a group of mental health and other professionals that would respond to certain calls to the Sheriff's Office, generally those involving a mental health incident.
"We must invest in the community responder model because we know that we have trained educated folks in our communities who do this work every day," said Phylicia Brown, executive director at Black Love Resists The Rust. "Criminalizing mental and behavioral health crises is not addressing the issue, but rather exacerbating it."
2 On Your Side has reached out to a spokesperson for the majority and minority caucuses of the legislature to see if there is support for a community response model, or at minimum the funding available for a pilot program.
The legislature is expected to vote on the 2024 budget on December 7.