Peoria councilman: City is committing 'malpractice' with funding of police, firefighters

Funding for the Peoria Police Department and Peoria Fire Department received intense scrutiny from councilman Chuck Grayeb at a meeting Tuesday night where he said the city was committing "malpractice" in its funding of the Fire Department.

Grayeb noted the recent death of a man in a house fire on Gale Avenue in his testimony about why the city needed to include funding for a fire rescue crew in its upcoming 2024-2025 budget.

In 2019, Peoria's rescue 1 and rescue 2 crews were taken out of commission due to budget cuts, and the responsibilities of the crew were handed to the department's truck companies and a jump crew, Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger said.

"We really don't have a dedicated rescue crew as such. To me, that is malpractice, sorry Mayor, but that is city malpractice," Grayeb said. "That is putting all our citizens in harm's way."

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Sollberger told the council that the department still had the same number of personnel deployed but said there is no longer a dedicated fire rescue crew. Rather, when a call comes in, the firefighters working will determine based on the call whether to take a fire engine or fire rescue truck to the call.

It would cost about $1.1 million to staff the rescue crews, Grayeb said. Sollberger told Grayeb the department would double check what the cost would be and report back to the council.

In its current configuration, the Peoria Fire Department has 12 engines, three trucks and one jump crew to utilize, Sollberger told the council. He said the department has to move resources around the city if a situation calls for it.

"And that takes what...time," Grayeb said. "Time means lives in your business. It means lives in the police business. It's a big deal."

Grayeb said the "number one responsibility" of the city government was to provide safety to people and felt the city was failing to adequately do that in this budget. He said it falls on the policy makers on the city council to make room in the budget for public safety.

"I think we will rue the day, especially when we go out and tell people. 'Oh we're all about funding public safety and roads first'... liars," Grayeb said.

The City Council will hear a report back from city staff on funding for the fire department. The City Council plans to pass a budget by Nov. 14.

Is Peoria doing enough for mental health responses?

Grayeb also lambasted the city's handling of mentally ill people in Peoria, particularly those he says pose a threat to "themselves and others, walking on our streets and in our neighborhoods."

Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria said the city was currently hiring people for its co-response model of policing, which would send a mental health professional on call with police. Echevarria said the city is interviewing for a director of the program and for eight social workers to staff it.

Grayeb said Echevarria's answer was "not responsive." He said there are mentally ill people walking the streets that were a danger to themselves or others and said the city has received "hundreds of calls" about them.

Grayeb said the police can only do so much when they are sent out to those calls, arguing that even after people are arrested, they usually turn back up on the streets to commit the same behaviors.

Echevarria noted there are a lot of moving parts in these cases, including probation offices and the state's attorney's office. He said, however, the social services aspect was needed in Peoria.

"We're not going to arrest our way out of the person that you're talking about," Echevarria said. "They need some help."

Grayeb said the police department was handicapped when it came to mental health cases and said the City Council needed to start having conversations with judges and mental health professionals about what could be done.

Grayeb also referenced the mass shooting that killed 18 people in Maine. He said the city of Peoria has had ample warning that something similar could happen here. Grayeb said the city needed to do more than just send the police.

"There is an easy answer, we need to commence discussions yesterday with the appropriate mental health authorities," Grayeb said. "We're supposed to be a humane blue state, do you know what that means? We supposedly care about people. We don't care about people, that's nonsense. If we do, it's not showing here in the city of Peoria."

City councilmember Bernice Gordon-Young, who leads mental health services at the Peoria County Jail, told Grayeb "with all due respect councilmember Grayeb, those conversations are being had."

Gordon-Young said she had a meeting last week with jail superintendent, parole, probation and the Department of Human Services.

"We're not ready to roll everything out yet, but the process is already in place," Gordon-Young said. "What happens is, if someone is referred to mental health court versus criminal court, then there is an entire system they go through to receive servies."

Gordon-Young said the challenge happens when the person is released because you cannot force medication and there are no in-person mental health shelters.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria councilman questions amount of funding for police and fire