What do Nelson’s two mayoral challengers have to say about the police department’s call for a big budget increase?
Police want two more officers and an admin person and that would cost around $300,000 a year extra.
Councillor Deb Kozak says this needs a deeper community conversation because police are confronted by a higher workload of mental health calls and that’s due to provincial downloading.
Meanwhile Pat Severyn – a former Nelson Police officer – says council will decide on the matter but he fully supports the request.
He adds he wouldn’t think differently if he’d had a different career.