ITHACA, N.Y. (WENY)-- The Ithaca Common Council held a meeting Wednesday evening. However, the one item not on the agenda but a major topic of concern for many was public safety and the shortage of police officers.

"When addressing our staffing emergency the response from many of you has been this is a national issue. Hearing this response from members of the council has been extremely frustrating for my colleagues and me. Yes this is a national issue but I can speak with confidence when I say this that it is much worse here than in other municipalities," Mary Orsaio with the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association and Sergeant with the Ithaca Police Department said.

There were roughly 100 people in attendance for the Ithaca Common Council meeting,  packed in a room on the 3rd in City Hall.

Orsaio says she feels the publics pain when it comes to public safety concerns. Treatment has diminished towards officers by local government and on top of that she says IPD is struggling with critical staffing shortages.

"Moral is at an all-time low, I'm sure you have heard this before but we are dealing with a staffing emergency. In the past week alone, we have had a homicide, two arsons, and a shooting which resulted in a gun being recovered. We have been working through these incidents with a skeleton crew," Orsaio said.

She went on to address the Common Council with passion, how the critical staff shortages are making it difficult for officers to do their job, to serve and protect the community,

"We are barely keeping up with our workload any day of the week," Orsaio said.

The President of the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association Tom Condzella says officers are overworked and underpaid and he is very concerned about how workers are being treated in the city.

"We have a patrol division that should be staffed with thirty-six officers, we are currently down to 23," Condzella said.

Last week he explained an officer responded to a stabbing and couldn't save the victim before they died. That incident was traumatizing to the officer.

"Because we have poor staffing at the Ithaca Police department that officer is expected to come back to work the next day as if nothing happened," Condzella said.

Condzella and Orsaio both added despite the challenges officers still show up to serve the Ithaca community. What they want most is for local government to partner with them in supporting public safety in the community.

STATEMENT FROM ACTING MAYOR LAURA LEWIS: