Alliance voices support for PAB, terminated staffers

Members of the Police Accountability Board Alliance gathered at City Hall Tuesday to voice support for the agency and its staff—a day after the city of Rochester filed a Fourth Department appeal to restore the board’s investigatory powers.

Late last week, all six members of the PAB’s investigative division, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, lost their jobs. Roughly 16 staffers remain, down from a peak of 30. The PAB Alliance, a coalition of community groups that support the accountability board, alleged retaliation with the latest round.

About a year ago, City Council through its legal counsel argued that the court should hear its case regarding PAB’s investigatory power in an expedited fashion, says President Miguel Meléndez.

“We had employees that could not do their assigned role,” he says. “The court took our case early and heard our arguments for this reason. Once the case was heard, and the courts determined that the PAB could not investigate, affirming the previous ruling, we had several positions that could no longer do their work.”

While cutting jobs is a tough decision, Meléndez stresses that the city has to be responsible with taxpayer funds at a time when resources are limited.

“This is about compliance with the ruling, and we will continue to navigate through the legal / appeals process,” he says.

The alliance is calling for the reinstatement of all terminated employees. The layoffs followed a recent state Public Employee Relations Board decision clarifying that when PAB employees were brought into the AFSCME union, their existing pay, benefits, and working conditions stay as they are—and cannot be changed unless and until they are negotiated. 

“Two of the six employees, along with community members, made a bold and courageous decision on April 16th to attend a Speak to Council session,” says Pastor Wanda Wilson, a PABA member. “They defended the work, the purpose, and the people. And they asked City Council not to make any cuts that would weaken the agency’s ability to serve this community. And the very next day, when they returned to work, they were told they were being released from their positions.” 

A state Supreme Court Appellate Division ruling in March curtailed PAB’s authority. The board brought the appeal after the Rochester police union, the Locust Club, won its suit against the oversight board in April 2025. The upheld decision strips the board of many of its disciplinary and investigative powers, including the ability to publish reports with disciplinary recommendations.

The city hopes to get another chance to help the PAB revive its ability to investigate claims.

If the city’s motion is granted, it would allow the city to challenge the court’s decision to remove the PAB’s ability to serve as an independent investigator of alleged misconduct within the Rochester Police Department.

“While I’m proud that Council is fighting to reinstore the investigative powers, I do find it deeply contradictory to remove investigators while we’re fighting to keep them. The decisions that have been made do feel retaliatory,” says City Councilmember Stanley Martin. “There was never any notice to me, my colleagues, about this firing coming. There was no input from community, and this decision does feel extremely retaliatory and unprecedented for the city of Rochester.”

City Council intends to vote on legislation to retain outside legal counsel to pursue a motion for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals, if necessary, it said. The proposed legislation authorizes a joint engagement of two law firms, Mancuso Brightman PLLC and Emery Celli Brinkerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, to handle the appeals process. These firms have worked on the case.  

“I don’t understand, and I’m trying to reconcile how our politicians, our local leaders, as well as our clergy, are standing by and watching the votes be discounted because of the power system in Rochester,” says  James Cooper, pastor of Love Fellowship Worship Center. “I ask that all politicians, all leaders in our community to stand up right now because the voters have mandated, with a 75% vote, to make sure that we hold our public officials as well as our police accountable for their actions on our streets.”

The City Council first passed legislation establishing the PAB in 2019. The body, comprised of nine city residents, was established with the ability to:

■ review and publicly recommend changes to Rochester Police Department policies, procedures, and trainings, including on issues of bias, use of force, de-escalation policies, and disability accommodations;

■ conduct community outreach, soliciting input from youth and publicizing complaint procedures;

■ conduct independent investigations of misconduct complaints, including through subpoenas and investigatory materials gathered by the RPD;

■ perform audits of investigations of civilian complaints and evaluate its own processes and outcomes on an annual basis;

■ establish disciplinary standards in conjunction with the RPD chief and Locust Club; and

■ hold hearings, and should officers be found to have committed misconduct, they would be subject to discipline consistent with those standards.

Since then, the PAB has lost much of its power. The Appellate Division in 2023 upheld previous rulings that the board could not lawfully implement and conduct disciplinary measures involving RPD officers. Additional litigation sought to prevent the board from subpoenaing officers, issuing disciplinary recommendations, and publicly releasing findings.

Smriti Jacob is Rochester Beacon managing editor. David Wazana is a Beacon contributing writer and member of the Oasis Project’s second cohort.

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