Priorities... as discussion and debate over the city's 2009 budget continues... it seems the council and the mayor have differing view points.

"Police and fire should be our priority," Mayor Virg Bernero said.

Bernero sticks by the Lansing Police Department's new surveillance cameras.

"Just on the downtown camera alone we've already gotten 20 arrests," Bernero said. "They work."

But some on the council disagree.

"I have said from the onset, I support more officers, not the cameras," Derrick Quinney said. "The individual touch is more effective."

The debate on the effectiveness of the cameras may not be solved anytime soon, but the funding for the cameras could be.

"We are severely understaffed," Quinney said. "I would make that a priority for us at council."

There are eight council members and two staffers. Quinney said there used to be five on staff.

"The staff we have now does a lot," he said, "but they can be more effective with another individual added to them."

The council proposes taking money, $44,000 to be exact away from the surveillance cameras, and putting it toward the salary of a new council employee.

"That money could be used for a staff member," Quinney said.

But Bernero said council should reassess their priorities.

"In the past, we agreed public safety was the priority," Bernero said. "This is the wrong signal, wrong time, wrong message."

Quinney contends the council is committed to public safety just as the mayor is; they're just not convinced these cameras are the answer.

"We're not taking [the money] from police, we are taking it from surveillance cameras," he said.