SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The gap in police staffing quickly took over discussion Wednesday during Syracuse Common Council's work session.

According to the city's budget director, the budget accounts for 465 officers, with only 419 positions filled.

"If we have funded positions, why the hell are we not filling them?" asked Councilor At-Large Joseph Nicoletti, D.

Confusion mounted with the number of positions funded in the budget.

"So the people we put back in don't exist? I mean, this is disturbing," said Council At-Large Majority Leader Steven Thompson. 

We asked Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler why there are more than 40 vacancies.

"As explained to me by Mayor (Stephanie) Miner, it becomes an issue of sustainability," Fowler said. "Certainly, those numbers were budgeted for. If we hire to that number, will we be able to sustain that number over the long haul? That was something that she wasn't sure if we would be. When I ask for more police officers, Mayor Miner don't just tell me no. She proceeds to educate me on the city's finances."

"We will not hire a class of firefighters or police officers in the remaining months of our administration. We have roughly $50 million dollars left in fund balance. We began our administration with $58 million in fund balance. We're very prudent about our money," said Bill Ryan, Syracuse chief of staff.

Nicoletti stands aghast at that.

"It's not enough. Everyone in your viewing audience knows it's not enough. We need to fill those vacancies,"said Nicoletti.

Earlier this year, Council added 15 more positions to the budget.

"They took the money from someplace else. Both of that was deficit spending. Yes, the council added 15 positions. We had no intentions of filling those nor what we had in funding those positions ourselves," said Ryan.

"If we're not going to, we should be playing games with the budget. There should have been a vote and we should've been explained to that we're not going to fill them up," said Nicoletti.

As the new year gets closer, that shortage could grow, as currently, there are about 140 officers eligible for retirement.  Fowler warns that that could cause future problems.

"At the beginning of the year, that's what people do. On average, we get anywhere from 25 to 30 people within the months of January and May that decide to leave," said Fowler.