Mayor DiCarlo confirmed that it was a Board decision to provide a cheap silver retirement badge to Sgt. Jim Saxon and he did anticipate it might be an issue. Nothing changed.
Two sets of badges were ordered – one in silver for all retiring officers in 2013/2014 and another in gold for everyone but Sgt. Saxon.
As of November 18, 2014, APSB members were John Sutton, Frank Cleminson, Pauline Gemmell and Wayne Hurst.
Also posted to bullyinginpolicing.com on the saxon page.
Windsor Police Service has issued a fourth decision letter regarding the request for its proposal that Mayor DiCarlo advised would be made public.
The November 19 letter stated, in part, “The fee for the records requested is $26.20. This fee is in addition to the $5.00 application fee already paid and is the cost to photocopy the records (131 pages @ .20 per page).”
RECAP:
Mayor DiCarlo advised me the Windsor response would be made public.
June 6, 2018 requested Paula Parker, town clerk, provide a link to the windsor police proposal, if it’s available online, or email a copy of it.
June 6, 2018 Paula Parker advised, The Windsor Police Proposal was not posted publicly as it was submitted to the Town with a confidentiality clause attached. If you wish to receive a copy of the proposal, you would be required to request it from Windsor Police Services directly.
Windsor Police advised I had to file an FOI request.
June 11, 2018 FOI request to Windsor Police.
July 10, 2018 Windsor Police denied access to the proposal in its entirety, citing exemptions.
July 20, 2018 Appeal submitted to Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) for two reasons: I disagreed the records are excluded from the Act and I believed more of the record should be disclosed.
August 3, 2018 Acknowledgement of Appeal from IPC.
August 29, 2018 Windsor Police revised decision letter; access is denied with added exemptions.
September 5, 2018 Notice of Mediation from the Information and Privacy Commissioner
September 12, 2018 Windsor Police; “the mediator assigned to this appeal has asked that I forward an Index of Exemptions.’ The exemptions cited corresponded with 57 pages.
November 19, 2018 Windsor Police; “during mediation of this appeal a further review of the records was conducted and partial access to the records granted.” A list of exemptions, revised November 19, was attached.
The supplementary agenda for this evening’s town council meeting includes a Final Report by Bruce Elman, Integrity Commissioner, regarding a complaint by CAO Miceli against Councillor Diane Pouget.
Elman summarized the complaint, the code of conduct, burden of proof, brief conclusion, an analysis and decision, a conclusion and finally a sanction section.
A Commentary by Councillor Pouget is attached to the Report.
Elman concluded, in part, “It is axiomatic that Council sets policy and that the Administration carries out that policy. Councillor Pouget may have legitimate questions, for example about hiring of staff, but those questions should be directed to inquiring whether the Council-determined policies have been followed.”
Shouldn’t the same logic apply when council-determined motions are carried?
Council approved motions to 1. obtain an OPP costing and 2. to work with the OPP for a costing.
An OPP costing was not obtained; who should be accountable for that?
Leo Meloche will be Amherstburg’s deputy mayor for the next four years, although a four vote difference does not equal an overwhelming endorsement.
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario continued to hear Staff Sgt. Christine Bissonnette’s allegations regarding her not being promoted to Inspector.
The Windsor Star article includes, ‘A “blue code of silence” exists in the Windsor police department which repeatedly blocked her path to reach the administrative ranks of the upper echelon, a female officer with 31 years experience testified.’
“She alleged after obtaining documents related to the oral and written interview process, scores by the three-member interview team for the various candidates on various pages were either fixed to be the same, missing or changed afterwards.”
Bullying In Policing was created in 2002 to raise awareness about such incidents.
The town’s website has posed difficulty for years including inadequate descriptions, for example, administration approved the 2018 budget while the title states council approved the 2018 budget, typos, and the programming of too many links when less would suffice.
To find the recount notice from amherstburg.ca, news and public notices reveals:
Notice of Recount
Posted Friday, November 16, 2018
Click here to view Notice of Recount
Read More…
Both the ‘Notice of Recount’ and ‘read more’ contain the same links whereas the ‘click here’ has no link. Regardless, either link should reveal the Notice; instead, both contain yet another link with similar and redundant information.
Notice of Recount
Posted on Friday November 16, 2018
Click here to view Notice of Recount
The final link directs users to town clerk Paula Parker’s Notice that contains a paragraph advising the recount will take place November 21 at 10:00 a.m. at the Libro Centre.
Mayor DiCarlo advised me Windsor’s response would be made public.
The red annotation in the redacted version of the contract on the town’s site is obvious:
**Schedule 1 – The full response to the Request for Proposals by the Windsor Police Service is being redacted from the public version as it is subject to a confidentiality clause. MFIPPA exemption 8.(1) Law Enforcement may apply.**
Section 8(1) is a discretionary exemption:
8 (1) A head may refuse to disclose a record if the disclosure could reasonably be expected to,
(c) reveal investigative techniques and procedures currently in use or likely to be used in law enforcement;
(e) endanger the life or physical safety of a law enforcement officer or any other person;
(g) interfere with the gathering of or reveal law enforcement intelligence information respecting organizations or persons;
(l) facilitate the commission of an unlawful act or hamper the control of crime.
The confidentiality clause was referenced in the June 2018 Ombudsman Report into council’s and the JPAC’s in camera meetings to discuss the policing RFP.
The Ombudsman concluded:
64 While I appreciate the municipality’s concerns about complying with this confidentiality clause, at the time of the committee’s meetings, there was no closed meeting exception that generally allowed a municipality to proceed in camera to protect the confidential information of a third party. However, new exceptions to the Municipal Act’s closed meeting requirements came into force on January 1, 2018, including exceptions related to information supplied in confidence. It is possible this matter may have fallen under one of the new exceptions, but they were not yet in force when the committee met. (emphasis added).
An FOI Appeal regarding Windsor’s refusal to disclose is ongoing.
As CBC reported in ‘do the right thing’, a recount will be held for the Deputy Mayor position since only four votes decided a win for Leo Meloche against Diane Pouget.
Meloche hired a lawyer to contest the recount. I wonder; would he have hired a lawyer in favour of a recount had he lost by four votes?
SEPCIAL COUNCILMEETING will be held Tuesday, November 13 and yes, you read that correctly; the typos are contained in the agenda on the town’s link to an external site.
A petition was presented to the Clerk to hold a meeting “that was cancelled by Mayor Aldo Dicarlo, without any discussion or consultation with Amherstburg Town Council.”
A municipality may, by by-law, adopt a policy with respect to the circumstances in which the municipality requires the clerk to hold a recount of the votes cast in an election.
Council should have, but did not, adopt such a policy so now must deal with the consequences.
Town clerk, Paula Parker, attached her Report regarding 2018 Election Procedures, Results and Financial Impact of a Recount to the agenda.
The legislation includes references to ‘shall’ and ‘may;’ to summarize:
Parker concluded her Report with her belief “that the recount is not necessary and will only add additional budget pressures on the taxpayer in the future.”
Firstly, council decides whether it is necessary. Secondly, taxpayers paid for the most expensive in person voting method that excluded those residents unable to vote yet still saved $50,000.
If there are concerns about taxpayers’ dollars, shouldn’t we examine savings elsewhere? what about outside consultants? online engagement software/companies to conduct surveys? web design companies? public relations? charitable donations? fireworks? parades? and the highest budget item, policing costs? Who was concerned that we might have saved a million dollars annually with the OPP compared to approximately half that with Windsor Police?
A recount at approximately $25,000. is a small price to pay to quell any doubts and maintain democracy.
Seven years ago, the burg watch was the first site to create a permanent record of the performance of council members and staff.
Some of the burg watch’s posts were about council’s contravention of the Municipal Act following the Ombudsman Review Of Closed Meeting, council’s flip flops and a lack of commitment to accessibility.
In 2014, the burg watch was the first to provide residents with an opportunity to question the candidates. Despite being threatened with legal action by a candidate, I feel it was a worthwhile endeavour although not everyone responded.
Since then, posts referenced Ombudsman’s Reports of council’s contravention of the Municipal Act along with the JPAC’s in camera meetings on the Policing RFP, council’s decision to choose Windsor Police Service without obtaining an OPP costing as promised and still, a lack of commitment to accessibility.
In 2018, a new council was elected but time will tell what, if any, patterns will be repeated.
Thank you to those who support the burg watch.
For over two decades my position has been that the Amherstburg Police Service’s hierarchical structure was costly and unnecessary. Effective January 1, 2019, a Staff Sgt. will be the officer in charge of the Amherstburg detachment.
The Windsor Star reported on Dave DeLuca’s appointment.
Council should pass a resolution requiring a recount of the votes cast, given that Leo Meloche was declared deputy mayor by only four votes.
Council could have passed bylaws regarding:
but the traditional and costly voting method prevailed.
While passing bylaws would be prudent, a recount would be the most accountable and transparent way to instill confidence in the counting of the votes; what is there to lose?
Thanks to a reader’s response to the Irresponsible Politicians post, anyone can compare OPP municipal policing costs.
According to am800, there were about 700 fewer voters than four years ago, something DiCarlo wasn’t happy to see.
“Really in the grand scheme of things that’s my only disappointment. I take my voting seriously, obviously and it would have been nice to get a bigger turnout.”
Other municipalities, including some in Essex County, embraced the more progressive online or phone voting method whereas Amherstburg maintained its traditional polling method that yielded predictable results.
Similarly, the result of the decision to issue a policing RFP and not obtain an OPP costing as promised should have been obvious – that the OPP were excluded.
It is difficult to rationalize decisions that cost the taxpayer more than the other options that were dismissed.
The time to examine the effect of decisions is when they are made. Surely, information was available relative to cost, cause and effect of policing and polling.
The new council has been elected:
Mayor Aldo DiCarlo
Deputy Mayor Leo Meloche
Councillors, by votes:
Donald McArthur
Michael Prue
Patricia Simone
Peter Courtney
Marc Renaud.
It will be interesting to see if any of the votes for change will actually result in change.
Unfortunately, since Amherstburg elected a traditional voting method, the most costly and least accessible method, I was unable to vote. And, I’m not optimistic, given the town’s lack of commitment to improving accessibility, that people with disabilities will benefit from increased inclusivity.
In 2014, among then-candidate Aldo DiCarlo’s priorities were: A need for greater transparency, accountability and “Why aren’t we discussing everything openly?”
I wondered why during the 2014 to 2018 council term the council and Joint Police Advisory Committee met in camera to discuss the policing RFP and the Windsor takeover proposal.
I had hoped that with Leo Meloche’s financial acumen, he would have realized the savings through a Windsor Police takeover were minimal, laughable to some, and cost comparisons should have been examined.
Patricia Simone never answered questions about discrimination while she was an Amherstburg Police Services Board member, which I thought was ironic given her speaking about the discrimination allegations against Windsor Police.
I have no knowledge of the rest of the council.
Time will tell.
The Windsor Star quoted Drew Dilkens in its police contract signing article:
“If you were an elected official, why wouldn’t you want to consider — at least consider — the opportunity to provide the exact same service and save, in this case, $570,000 a year?” Dilkens asked. “I think it would be irresponsible for politicians. It would be irresponsible for me as the mayor of the City of Windsor, if someone presented something to me that would be delivery of the same service and saving me half a million dollars a year. For me, it would be irresponsible not to at least consider it.”
By that logic, wasn’t it irresponsible for Amherstburg’s politicians to not follow through on its motions to obtain an OPP costing and compare ALL the options? To not at least consider the most cost saving option?
