The City Council has scheduled a public hearing for June to consider eliminating the public safety commissioner position in favor of a reorganization of police and fire structure.
The public hearing is set for June 11 with the hopes of voting on the issue at the council’s July 16 meeting.
If the council moves forward with eliminating the position, it would require a public referendum. The Westchester C County Board of Elections has an Aug. 4 deadline in order for the proposition to appear on the November ballot.
If the referendum were to pass, the city would have a paid police commissioner and a paid fire chief for the first time.
Oversight of the police and fire departments merged under a newly created public safety commissioner in 2016 in an attempt to modernize and streamline the city’s emergency services.
It remains unclear what role, if any, Michael Kopy, Rye’s public safety commissioner since 2021, would assume if the police and fire departments are separated.
“We have been very fortunate to have our Commissioner Kopy and he remains an asset,” Cohn, who is politically unaffiliated, said at the May 21 council meeting.
