A fruitful meeting

The bravest man at the meeting

Cobourg's Chief of Police took the mike last night and laid out the way he saw things about the County's policing study. Speaking publicly, especially when it is criticism of a Mayor's pet project is usually a CLM (career limiting move) but in this case his remarks were needed to be part of the public record. The audience appreciated it and the community should applaud his courage.

Chief Sweet took to the microphone after many others gave Council their views about local policing. He pointed out that not only was the general public excluded from specific consultation, he and the local polices services were excluded in contravention of a Provincial protocol. This protocol, ironically had been designed with the help of Chief Sweet, was ignored by the consultant who went off in his own direction. Chief Sweet further alleges that the consultant wrote his report including incomplete and inaccurate information. The end result is that the consultant's report is flawed and cannot be relied on. How much weight his comments will have remain to be seen but a fuller presentation will be made on June 16 when he and the Chair of the Police Services Board will speak before Council.

Note: a fuller report about last night's meeting will be posted later.

At last the DBIA has woken up or has the Chair's political ambitions ballooned? At a Council meeting the Chair of the DB1A, and rumoured candidate for the next elections Sue Dingsdale-Glover asked for a referral of the decision that Council is set to make - the expansion of the Walmart store.

Leaving aside the contradiction that Downtown is striving to be unique and a ''niche destination'' as well as trying to attract mainstream stores (a food store would be nice). Let's look at the bargain Walmart struck last time with the DBIA. A three year payout to the DBIA of $60,000 and a sign that acknowledges the presence of Downtown on the Walmart property. Both would appear to be failures in execution. The payout was not on time and the sign is too small and insignificant to have a bearing on traffic direction.

But the biggest failure this time around is to point out the shaky premise of the application. As all geeks know the justification for expansion is based on a ''Market study", This study is supposed to prove the need that the Town can handle additional commercial capacity and will not lead to the demise of existing businesses, this is an OP requirement. Last time around it was acknowledged, at an OMB hearing no less, that the Town's commercial capacity was maxed out, Now several years later, with little additional population growth, and a depressed business climate and presence, what has happened to create commercial capacity that can sustain the addition of an extra 60,000 square feet of commercial space? Where is the demonstrable need that can sustain another 60,000 sf?

This question has been ignored and obfuscated by the Town Planner (just tell me what to do and ! can dress it up) Glenn McGlashon. In a report to Council he sees the Market Study (written by one firm and peer reviewed by Walmart’s in house planner) as meeting the intent of the OP, l guess all the keen OP watchers have been worn down and can't a: bothered to point out the obvious this time. Pity.

Who says the young are wastrels?

Read this and rejoice. The young people at St Mary's are at least doing something - standing up for what they think is important today. Cobourg students rally for Khadr

These guys must have gone to the same Political School

In a similar kind of scandal, to the Bernier affair, Nevada politics is a boiling. However the telling part of this report is the last paragraph. Stephen Harper's handlers could have scripted it! With the dirt flying, party backing away

The're off

The King of Northumberland (Hector MacMillan) couldn't wait, I wonder if he will turn up in Cobourg next Thursday? I refer to the fact that Cambellford has already voted to put the boots to Cobourg by passing a motion that takes our money and does away with our Police Service.

In my mind the issue of the Policing is this - can we afford the four minute response and if we can't will the OPP provide the same level of service? There are enough doubts about this, as we watch the OPP in action in the County and add to that a statement from the OPP's Deputy Commission Chris Lewis, who said, in a delivery to Bradford Town Council in Wasaga Beach, amongst other things, "At some point, we will reach the breaking point and we are at that point now. Times have changed when it comes to calling officers for overtime. They are too tired, already working or have commitments. There was a time when you could come up with 50 officers no problem."

The above report report, and the one below came from The Collingwood Enterprise - Sharon Weatherall here is the full report

At the same meeting an Inspector Bradford, when answering the question about summer relief in Wasaga Beach, said "This arrangement is not a money maker for us - we are in the business of providing safety. You are short police officers. This detachment is severely understaffed in both summer and winter. The workload here has increased, the number of officers has not."

Cheap at half the price!

$200,000 plus for the privilege of changing Chiefs of police. Read here for the details of the settlement. However he, Gary Clement, is not to blame, Two successive Police Service Boards, One chaired by Arnold McCurdy and one chaired by Allan Robinson got us into these messes. The first one hired John Kay, a disaster and spendthrift and the other hired his replacement, none too well obviously. The second board, in the hiring process actually had two Chiefs on board at the same time because they, the hiring committee, lusted after Clement and hired a fellow and then chased Clement all the way to Ottawa, at the same time. Well, we paid and in the end a settlement to clean up the mess was the only way out.

The good that came out of this was that the PSB finally hired the guy they should have hired a decade earlier - Paul Sweet. Let's end the pretense and take away the 'acting' in "Acting Chief of Police" and get back into proper community policing at a reasonable cost. It can be done now that we have swept away the messes.

Why we need strong statements from whomever

The way the policing debate is unfolding is disturbing. The topic of the county report is tentatively scheduled to be discussed by the Council's executive committee on June 16. Presumably a public meeting will take place before that and then Council will vote the week after June 16.

But is that enough public consultation? I think not. There are a few outstanding questions that have to be clear in the public' mind before a decision can be made. Primarily how much will we save or will it cost us? The County says severances, for example, will only be about $10,000. But how do you get 15 dispatchers into 5 keyboarding jobs, without severance? How do you compensate the senior officers for rebadging and reranking without a pension liability and loss of future wages? And more importantly how do we guarantee the existing level of service when other municipalities policed by the OPP are facing officer shortages. And, how do we enshrine the promised rebates in a contract when the OPP is willing to abrogate existing OPP contracts in other municipalities - just ask the Mayor of Norfolk what he thinks about a 14% increase to his police budgets because the OPP has taken away a rebate programme.

Add in the concerns of Councillor Frost who says, amongst other things, that the report is not factual in places (remember this was a huge criticism of all of Mr Watkins previous reports - he makes stuff up) and we need a public meeting to determine the actual cost. You cannot expect thoughtful people who look at these things to accept statements from politicians, especially those on the present Cobourg Council, who have a huge credibility gap to overcome today in all of their dealings with the public.

So it is incumbent on the Chief of Police and the Police Services Board to deliver their opinion on the matter, and then we, the public, should have an opinion and then a vote must be taken. Time is running out - get on with it.

Two men Taser each other in parking dispute

Couldn't resist this one, just imagine the sceneTwo men Taser each other in parking dispute

This comment is so important it must be the subject of a new post

I received this comment and felt that it was so illuminating it needed more exposure.

The OPP report which Ben kindly provided a link to indicated that Cobourg would get savings of at least $1.1 million over current costs in the first year of an OPP contract, and savings averaging $1.8 million per year in subsequent years.

Even though I am personally in favour of retaining the Cobourg Police it appears that neither the current council nor the triple majority will save it for us. Therefore I suggest that we should make a loud noise to ensure that these $1.1 to $1.8 million savings are enshrined a reduction of Cobourg municipal taxes to take effect as soon as the OPP contract is signed. If we do not insist on this the council will keep the money for more municipally inspired circuses that they arrive at by visioning"....Ugh

But are the savings really $1.1 million? We know that the screening income, which will be ignored by the OPP, has been estimated at $500,000 and now reports are surfacing, in Simcoe County, that the promised rebates are not forthcoming. See here for details. So the cost difference may not be anywhere near the reports glowing projections. Let's have a cost per household projection and then we can judge whether or not we want to pay the difference.

But the important point of posting the comment was to strengthen the suggestion that Council be held to reduce taxes by the savings achieved. Or else this bunch of sleepy old men led by a Mussolini will fritter it away on a seniors centre.

Today is the day to start the campaign - again

Today the Police Services Board will meet, as usual. However today they will be the masters of their own destinies. With the County Policing report in the public domain the Cobourg PSB is mandated, by its presence, to respond in a forceful manner. A precedent has been set: the Kenora PSB has issued a statement to the citizenry, that although the Kenora City Council has voted to go to the OPP the KPSB has said they will not disband. A state of civil anarchy prevails and now OCCOPS has to decide.

The supporters of the local tradition and service are waiting for a strong statement that refutes the actuals costs of OPP policing and a fuzzy report. Just because Bill Pyatt and OPP consultant Jack Watkins write a report, that report may not be factual. Their last reports have not been! Actual savings must be laid out including the revenues from screening that the County report ignores. Costs per household must be calculated so that homeowners will know, on paper, just how much they will save.

But remember we have seen this before. When the sewer costs moved from the tax rolls to user pay we were promised a tax cut - it never came! We need costs and we need to make judgments, that can only happen if we have the facts before us, the County report does not give us them.