Chief O’Leary Says Splitting Public Safety Referendum Not Needed

In less than two weeks, voters in the City of Fond du Lac will head to the polls, and one of the major items on the ballot is the Public Safety Referendum. Both the Police and Fire Departments are asking for increased funding to add additional public safety personnel to their departments.

Fire Chief Peter O’Leary told City Council Wednesday night that the message being told to residents has been on the mark. “I’ve been really happy with the literature that has gone out. It’s been factual. It’s been accurate. And it continues to mirror the same things that I talked to the City Council about almost two years ago for the first time.”

O’Leary also said he’s been disappointed in the conversations asking that the referendum should have been split up. “It’s a public safety referendum and it’s for all of us, and the work that we do together with our law enforcement partners, it’s real. It’s all the time. We have calls for service that overlap and intersect and I can’t think of another set of people I’d want to be partnered with than them.”

Voters will make the decision at the upcoming April 6^th election.