The Madison Common Council voted Tuesday evening to pass an amendment to the city’s 2025 executive operating budget which prevents funding cuts from being made to the Office of the Independent Police Monitor, District 8 Alder MGR Govindarajan said.

Alders started the meeting by hearing from community members about the potential effects of the budget cuts on Madison’s Police Civilian Oversight Board, which works with and oversees the Office of the Independent Police Monitor, MGR said.

The Office of the Independent Police Monitor provides non-governmental oversight of the Madison Police Department, MGR said.

“It’s not done by elected officials, it’s not done by police officers, it’s done pretty much by the people affected by the police,” MGR said.

The office, along with the Police Civilian Oversight Board, reviews and makes recommendations for Madison’s Police disciplines, use of force and other various police activities, according to the City of Madison website.

The 2025 budget proposed to cut one position and other various costs from the Office of the Independent Police Monitor, MGR said.

The budget cuts were proposed due to concerns surrounding the office’s efficiency, MGR said.

“In three to four years they only opened up their complaint form, like if you want to complain about a police officer, they only opened that up two weeks ago,” MGR said.

To prevent these cuts from being made, alders came together to create an amendment to the originally proposed budget, MGR said.

This amendment proposed to move some funding from the Police Department, as well as any other money left over in the budget toward supporting the Office of Independent Police Monitor, MGR said.

MGR said he voted in favor of the budget proposal, which passed the council by a 15-5 margin.

“I’ve basically come to the conclusion that if the question is providing some leniency to better serve marginalized folks in our community … I think I’m okay with providing that additional funding,” MGR said.

Though the amendment prevented budget cuts to the office from being enacted, MGR said he believes it is still the council’s responsibility to hold it accountable to specific goals set by the council.