Homer residents pray for unity

Many asked the town's administration and its police department to work together. The more than 150 people present also prayed for town unity.

The mayor and city attorney decided to table amending the police department's budget and the topic of disbanding the police force. Town Attorney Marcus Patillo said this would give residents a chance to examine the budgets and offer feedback as to what should happen next.  

"We're making an effort to work with the police department;see if we can get along better as a community, said Homer Mayor Alecia Smith.

Smith said before the disbanding of the police department, only a handful of people would attend the  council meetings. She hopes that now people will get the facts, and visit her office, so she can explain her and the council's decisions.

According to Smith, a committee of councilmembers were assigned to work with the police department. She said they could not get any cooperation when dealing with the budget. She said the council wanted Police Chief Russell Mills to hire officers as part-time and adjust salaries. She said he did not do either. She said it was the committee's decision to disband the police department. As for attempting to dismantle the police force in the future, Smith said she's leaving that up to the council but she hopes they can work together and find a solution to the budgetary issues.

During the council meeting, Mayor Alecia Smith also responded to the claims of her spending thousands of dollars of the town's money for traveling. According to her, the trips helped the town secure more than a million dollars in grants, which will allow for the town to fix its sewer and drainage lines, and repair the town hall's leaking roof.