Montgomery citizens concerned about crime come to Mayor’s Community Town Hall armed with questions
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed hosted a community town hall Tuesday evening at AUM. According to a spokesperson for Mayor Reed, more than 300 people came to the town hall meeting, and at least 120 questions had previously been submitted online by concerned citizens. But only about 24 questions were actually answered in the hour and a half that the meeting lasted because of time constraints.
Mayor Reed started with good news, saying the city has 60 million dollars in reserve which is 20% of the yearly budget. He also mentioned incentives that have been offered to recruit new police officers, including signing bonuses. And he said the city is making an effort to recruit officers in places like the Midwest to come to Montgomery, by telling them about our year-round warm weather.
The questions from residents covered a variety of topics – one woman asked if the Mayor was willing to continue getting help with policing from ALEA and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office, and the Mayor said he would continue. Another person asked what was being done about the homeless problem in the city. The mayor said a homeless task force was assembled in the last year, and they would be working with fourteen agencies. Reed said he has also looked at purchasing old hotels in town using federal funding to house the homeless.
Mayor Steven Reed said, “I asked (Interim) Chief Graboys what his plan was for how we (could) use policing to assist those, not arrest, who are having a bad stretch. One of the things we talked about is the crisis intervention and using those who are not our officers who are out on the tough calls. These would be unarmed (officers) and go out as part of the crisis intervention team to help those who may have mental health challenges.”
Montgomery resident Margen Menefee said, “I thought it was wonderful to see so many community members and so many leaders all expressing their care and concern for the city. I think it’s important for us to be able to have an opportunity to voice those things and also hear the feedback of where our money is going, where our efforts are going, and what they’re doing.”
Montgomery resident Jerome McReynolds said, “Some crimes, as far as robberies, are things that the city can work on with the business community. I think all businesses should have cameras installed to be able to observe the traffic coming in and out.”
People also voiced concern that commercial vehicles are parked overnight around the city. When one person asked if more sidewalks would be put in for pedestrians, the mayor said it he was looking at converting the one-way streets downtown into two way streets to make it more walkable. The mayor also mentioned that he plans to bring a commuter tax that failed several years ago back up, so that the city will be able to make money off of people who work in Montgomery, but do not live here. According to statistics given to Action 8 News by the mayor’s office, there have been 198 non-fatal shootings so far this year, which they say is down 12% from last year at this time.
