common council

Democratic candidates running for the Ithaca Common Council are contesting races in most of the wards of the city this year. Many of the candidates seeking open seats made their case to voters at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters Thursday.

"We're talking about reimagining public safety. And we're still hiring more [armed] officers," said Common Council member Phoebe Brown.

A task force will now take over the work for designing how the new overarching Department of Public Safety would work.

"We are entering a critical time with a recent uptick in cases of COVID-19."