City Council voted Tuesday night to confirm David Smith as police chief of Rochester. Smith has been interim chief since last November. He was recently named Mayor Malik Evans pick and underwent confirmation hearings.
The vote was 8-1, with Council Member Stanley Martin voting “no” because, she said, of Smith’s involvement in the 2020 protests which were broken up with pepper balls.
Council also voted to create a Business Improvement District for downtown Rochester. BIDs are public-private partnerships in which property owners agree to pay additional taxes in order to get improved benefits like more security, street improvements and marketing. Opponents claimed it would reward developers at the expense of ordinary people.