“Every council I’ve worked with has been very, very supportive of the Bryan Police Department. It’s one of the things that’s has kept me here 13 years.”

KBTX
By Donnie Tuggle
Published: Oct. 10, 2022 at 9:43 PM GMT-6

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) -In an unprecedented move, City of Bryan Police Chief Eric Buske is speaking out about claims made in a political ad from a mayor candidate.

In an advertisement on a local radio station, Bryan mayoral candidate Mike Southerland claims the city council is defunding the police department.

“Howdy, Mike Southerland for Bryan Mayor,” the advertisement said. “Citizens you want spending controls and tax relief but the city council is out of touch. They wasted time on whether or not to reduce property tax by $350,000 while setting a budget expenditure of $500,000,000 and what’s worse the council is defunding the police department while other departments get about a 12% increase. Please vote for Mike Southerland for Mayor and I’ll stop this nonsense and make sure you’re protected and your money is spent wisely.”

Chief Buske says the claims made by Southerland are unfounded and inaccurate so he felt he had to speak out.

“I do try to be apolitical but in this particular case the information was inaccurate and I felt compelled to straighten out the record,” Buske said.

Buske also says never in the 13 years that he’s led the department has funding or defunding been an issue. He also made it clear that he and the department have a great relationship with city leaders.

“Every council I’ve worked with has been very, very supportive of the Bryan Police Department,” said Buske. “It’s one of the things that has kept me here for 13 years.”

Southerland says he disagrees with the chief and this year’s budget is proof.

“You can’t tell it by the funding. If it’s a top priority why they’d only get a three-point three percent increase?” said Southerland. “Number two, they got new equipment, but it was replacement equipment and versus the fire department that got seven new people and a new additional fire truck and so the police department got one person.”

Southerland says what he calls a budget decrease comes at a time when more policing is needed, especially in schools.

“If you look at what’s going on, if you look at the children the most important thing the city does is make sure that department got everything that they need and more to take care of the children, us, and themselves,” said Southerland.

City of Bryan Chief Financial Officer Will Smith also says the claims of defunding are not true. He says public safety for the city of Bryan has always been a top concern for city leaders and doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. Smith also says public safety makes up more than 80% of this year’s budget and budgets from previous years must be taken into account when making claims like this.

“There are different needs, a lot of those needs are one-time needs,” said Smith. " If you compare one year to the previous year without the understanding of what those one-time expenditures were in the previous year, what those requests were for the current year I think it’s really hard to make a blanket statement about one department.”

City Council members and fellow mayoral candidates Bobby Guttierez and Brent Hairston say Southerland’s claims are untrue and hurtful to the council and the police department.

“It’s simple easy math and this is something that we really know, we understand these budgets have been approved for many, many years the last thing we would ever do is do something to defund our police,” said Guttierez.

“In my time on council, we occasionally have disagreements but in the four years I’ve been on council I can’t think of an issue that we’ve ever been more united on than supporting all of our first responders,” said Hairston.

Southerland says he does not regret the ad and plans to make more to address the needs and concerns of residents.

“The people in the leadership positions need to understand what they’re doing and during the budget process which I watched, I was either here {City Council Chambers} or watched it they never discussed the police department,” said Southerland. “Not one time.”

When asked about the police chief speaking out against his claims Southerland said he respects the opinion of the chief but still disagrees.

“I’ve got a lot different experience than he’s got and I’ve been on the council for 12 years and I’ve watched it, I’ve lived it so I just have a difference of opinion,” said Southerland. “I don’t want to get in a fight with the police chief. He does a wonderful job, he’s a wonderful guy, and he’s got a lot of time but I’ve got a difference of opinion and I should be entitled to my opinion without the whole damn city staff attacking me.”