Sarnia Police Services Board. 2 February 2023. (Photo by Blackburn Media Sarnia)Sarnia Police Services Board. 2 February 2023. (Photo by Blackburn Media Sarnia)
Sarnia

Police board rejects call for open budget deliberations

The Sarnia Police Services Board has voted against holding its budget deliberations in open session and presenting more detailed budget documents going forward.

The request, made by city council in January, was rejected by a three to two vote during Thursday morning's board meeting.

Board members Mayor Mike Bradley and Councillor George Vandenberg voted in favour of the motion.

Bradley, who did not support the service's 11.5 per cent increase for 2023, said he's concerned about the spending direction of the police service at this time.

"At a time when people are distrustful of institutions, whether they be police departments or city halls or you name it, the best thing you can do is to be as open and open as possible to build trust with the community," he said. "I'm not looking for conflict but I also have fundamentally, my entire political life, fought for open government and making sure that people understood that we were operating in their interests, not in self interests."

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley during a Sarnia Police Services Board meeting. 2 February 2023. (Photo by Blackburn Media Sarnia)

During Thursday's meeting, Bradley nominated fellow board member Paul Wiersma to the position of chair. Bradley, who has spent 10 to 15 years as chair, said one reason why he stepped down is that he needed to be in a position where he's not trapped by the chairmanship role.

"This will allow me that opportunity because I'm going to be a hawk on spending, and I always have been, but again, the awkward position this year was the board supports the budget, I don't, I then have to deal with the council, I don't [support the budget], and I felt extremely ethically uncomfortable with that direction."

Bradley said a number of years ago, the Ombudsman of Ontario praised Sarnia, and what the Sarnia mayor was doing, with open government.

"And that's why that motion went through city council, which they adopted even though they adopted the police budget, they also adopted that they wanted openness and they wanted a full budget so that they could understand all of the issues that are being dealt with, like they've had in the past.

"We got all of the overtime, we got all of the details we needed to make a judgement because while we cannot cut certain items as a city council, we can cut the budget. And it has happened a number of times where you're cutting $300,000, $400,000 and then you figure it out at the board level."

Bradley added that it looks like police spending is going to increase and increase and increase.

"You heard it today without a lot of detail that this chief is looking for a new police station. You know the cost of that on a building that opened up in 1987? That is very significant for me and I'm really concerned about that direction."

Wiersma voted against the motion from city council, along with newly elected Vice Chair Kelly Ash and new board member Charlene Sebastian. Wiersma said under the Police Services Act, it talks about times when it's important to meet in-camera.

Sarnia Police Services Board Chair Paul Wiersma during a board meeting. 2 February 2023. (Photo by Blackburn Media Sarnia)

"I think there are times where it's important to have education workshops and training sessions in which board members can just ask questions that maybe they're afraid to ask in a public session because they don't want to look silly or stupid, and I think that it's important for us to be able to be educated and informed as a board so that we can make appropriate decisions."

Wiersma said where possible, everything should be done in public, and that the public has entrusted in the police service a significant increase in the budget for 2023.

"And we're looking at some community-based proactive policing measures, and I think it's really, really important that we continue the conversation with the community and that we report back to them at regular intervals on how these initiatives are being implemented."

Sarnia Police Chief Derek Davis said the service has never been as open and transparent as they were with the 2023 budget. Davis highlighted a number of public information sessions that were held prior to its adoption.

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