Author Archives: theburgwatch

About theburgwatch

Amherstburg's first local blogger since 2011, writing about town council and issues.

Police Costing Comparison Amherstburg And Orangeville Part 3 Council Motions Requesting OPP Costing

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Any municipality wishing to request a contract proposal for the provision of policing services by the OPP must submit a council resolution requesting a proposal for the cost of OPP policing to the Ministry.

Orangeville
First request:
January 2014 Council Resolution to request costing proposal from OPP.
April 2017 OPP Costing Analysis presentation to Council.

Second request:
December 2018 Council Resolution to request a costing proposal from OPP.
January 2019 Town’s request approved and an initial meeting with OPP was held.

Amherstburg
December 2014 Resolution to obtain an OPP Costing.
January 2017 Resolution, in part, to work with the OPP on the OPP costing.
No initial meeting with OPP was held.
Fall 2017 cancelled.

Police Costing Comparison Amherstburg And Orangeville Part 2 Police Complement

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  • Orangeville Police Complement            OPP Proposed Complement
  • Chief                                1                         Superintendent            0.58
  • Deputy                             1
  • Staff Sergeant                  2                         Staff Sergeant              1
  • Sergeant                          6                         Sergeant                      6
  • Constables                    31.8                       Constables                35
  • Overtime Equivalent         1.1                       Overtime Equivalent  1.1
  • Total Complement       42.9                      Total Complement 44.6
  • Amherstburg Police Complement          Windsor Police Proposed
  • Chief 1                                                        Shall be 30 full time including
  • Deputy 1                                                     the Officer in Charge.
  • Staff Sergeant 0
  • Sergeant 6
  • Constables 23
  • Special Constable 1
  • Total Complement 32                               Total Complement 30

Police Costing Comparison Amherstburg And Orangeville Overview

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theburgwatch compared the main framework of police costings in Orangeville and Amherstburg.

Disclaimer: this Amherstburg Orangeville Comparison Police Costing is provided for informational purposes only. theburgwatch.com makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.

Mayor DiCarlo’s Response RE Windsor Police 1 Year Anniversary Comment

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As mentioned in the post, Windsor Police Takeover One Year Later, theburgwatch requested DiCarlo to expand, specifically, on what the ‘quite a bit of service’ is and submitted the following to him:

“according to an am800 article re the one year anniversary of the windsor police takeover, you mentioned, “From what I can tell, on the surface, we’re actually getting more for our money which was really the key that we were looking into this for. Initially, it was really just saving money, but it looks like we’ve added quite a bit of service for cost savings.” for the burgwatch, would you expand, specifically, on what the ‘quite a bit of service’ is.”

A.  “I spoke to all of the news outlets about this issue, so I’ll have to try and recall the context.  That I remember for that particular article, the context of the statement was in relation to feedback received from residents regarding the increased presence of police officers across the town.”

Mayor DiCarlo Pleased With Windsor Police

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Blackburn News reports how pleased Mayor DiCarlo is with the Windsor Police takeover.

DiCarlo is quoted in this article, “We have access to a lot of services that we never did before. Obviously Windsor Police is a much bigger operation with a lot more to offer,” said DiCarlo.

Have we not always had access to a lot of services?

It was my understanding that since the Amherstburg Police Services Board was obliged to provide adequate and effective policing we either had all the services that were required or had access to them through the OPP and/or Windsor.

Obviously, the OPP is an even bigger operation that also has a lot to offer but no OPP costing was obtained for comparison sake.

While the article also mentioned, “the town realized a half a million dollars in savings by switching over to the Windsor Police Service,” we never knew if we might have saved significantly more through a switch to the OPP.  After all, one of the corrective actions listed in the Deloitte Report 2014 was, “look for shared service opportunities with neighbouring municipalities,” which could have easily meant to share OPP policing with the majority of Essex County.

Windsor Police Takeover One Year Later

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An am800 report, Amherstburg Mayor happy After One Year With New Police Service, quoted DiCarlo, “I’ve heard from almost nobody still opposed,” he says. “I’ve heard from a lot of people who were concerned early on and after the switch many of them have said that it turned out to be a really good idea. From the feedback I’m getting from the residents, it has made a very noticeable difference.”

“From what I can tell, on the surface, we’re actually getting more for our money which was really the key that we were looking into this for. Initially, it was really just saving money, but it looks like we’ve added quite a bit of service for cost savings.”

theburgwatch requested DiCarlo to expand, specifically, on what the ‘quite a bit of service’ is.

the burg watch is 8 years old

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Eight years ago, the burg watch was the first site to create a permanent record of council’s performance as a reminder to voters heading to polls.

Early posts were about council’s contravention of the Municipal Act following the Ombudsman Review Of Closed Meeting, flip flops and a lack of commitment to accessibility.

In 2014, the burg watch provided an historic opportunity for residents to question the candidates directly. Despite being threatened with legal action and negative comments, I feel it was a worthwhile endeavour even if not everyone responded as that indicates, to me, their future behaviour.

In 2018, posts referenced another Ombudsman’s Report of council’s and the JPAC’s contravention regarding in camera meetings on the Policing RFP and council’s decision to choose Windsor Police Service without obtaining an OPP costing as promised.

Thank you to those who support the burg watch.

Councillor Donald McArthur’s Response to Police Officers’ Breach of Information Question

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In yesterday’s post I asked members of council if any violation of the employee code of conduct, section 15, was addressed?

Just to recap, section 15.0 Confidential Information:

The following information must not be used or disclosed, except in accordance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“MFIPPA”):

    • information which is personal

Today, McArthur’s response regarding the breach of personal and sensitive information of 40 police officers, employees and family members is:

“It is my understanding that the disclosure of personal information was inadvertent and that it is the opinion of the Clerk, the Treasurer and the Director of Corporate Services, who conducted an investigation, that the inadvertent disclosure was not a Code of Conduct violation.

It is my understanding as well that the Town advised the Information and Privacy Commissioner of this issue and notified the affected individuals. It is also my understanding that the Town took steps to help guard against similar inadvertent disclosures in the future.”

Nowhere in the Employee Code of Conduct does it state not to worry, it was an inadvertent disclosure. Carry on.