AUBURN - After being short-staffed following a budget cut in 2003 that did away with a sergeant position, the Auburn Police Department requested a budget amendment Thursday that would allow them to reinstate the position at a cost of $5,000.

The city council approved the amendment to the budget, but councilor Thomas McNabb voted against the resolution, saying he opposed amending the budget only two months after it was approved.

"The ink's not dry on the budget, and now we're going to change it. If we needed that, I don't know why it wasn't done at budget time." McNabb said. "How many times do we have to find an additional $5,000?"

The council approved the resolution 3-1. Councilor Robert Hunter was absent.

The sergeant position was cut from the fiscal year 2004 budget, and the police department instead had a patrol officer in the Identification Bureau perform the duties. The $5,000 cost of the change is the difference in salary - the department would not be hiring a new officer.

According to the resolution, the reduction in staff added to duties of Police Chief Gary Giannotta and Deputy Chief Thomas Murphy, making it more difficult for them to perform routine tasks.

Mayor Tim Lattimore said he didn't want a short-staffed police department.

"The last thing I want to do is have our police department weakened one iota," Lattimore said. "A strong presence in our police department is absolutely necessary. I will be in favor of this if it makes the police department more efficient."

In other business:

- City Manager John Salomone said he met with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Albany this week to discuss how to take care of the crow problem this year. One proposal involves training city workers to help disperse the crows, rather than having the USDA perform the entire task.

During public comment, county legislator William Catto said he believes the county should assist the city in dealing with the crows.

- In response to some concerns, councilor William Jacobs proposed that the city work to reimburse residents along portions of Wall Street who had paid to have their sidewalks redone through the city's Revolving Loan Sidewalk Program. The city recently used federal funds to redo entire portions of the sidewalks along Wall Street at no cost to residents.

"I think the city should give some relief to these people," Jacobs said.

- Carr Magel returned to council to respond to comments made at last week's meeting about his tax situation. Hunter noted at last week's meeting that Magel owes the city money in back taxes, but Magel said that had nothing to do with the concerns he was addressing at council. Magel has attended council meetings for several weeks straight to complain about the city code enforcement office.

"I felt that I had legitimate concerns and I wanted to talk about them. My wife told me, 'Don't go down there,'" Magel said. "The problems I came in with, I still don't have an answer for that."

Staff writer Anne Gleason can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or at anne.gleason@lee.net