Windsor Police released further records as ordered by Information and Privacy Commissioner Ontario Order MO-3927, regarding an Appeal of Windsor Police’s decision to withhold access to parts of its policing proposal to Amherstburg.
Mayor DiCarlo advised the Windsor response would be made public and a request followed in June 2018.
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The Information and Privacy Commissioner Ontario issued ORDER MO-3934-I regarding the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act request to the town for correspondence regarding the police costing from the town’s CAO (and his staff) to the OPP.
am800 reported the deadline for the Windsor Police Service to takeover policing in Amherstburg is quickly approaching and Chief Al Frederick says everything is on schedule.
I’m not sure why implementing a schedule as planned is newsworthy.
According to the article, ‘Over the course of the contract the town will save $14-million and an additional $2-million to $3-million in pensions and benefits.’
I’m also not sure why the projected savings are repeated when, in my opinion, they are minimal and an OPP switch might have reduced the policing costs significantly.
Unfortunately, council did not follow up on its motions to obtain an OPP costing so we’ll never know. But we do know how much other municipalities pay for policing.
As mentioned in the post, Meloche Wants Deputy Mayor Seat, Meloche referenced the deal with Windsor Police to take over policing Amherstburg.
According to the RTT article, Meloche said Essex had $3.9 million in policing costs in 2018 compared to Amherstburg’s $5.8 million.
The article continued, “Overall, we thought it’s a good deal for Amherstburg as a whole,” he said, noting there are $14 million in potential savings over the next 20 years.
Here’s my math:
Essex paid $1.9 million less on policing than Amherstburg.
Amherstburg’s $5.8 million minus $700,000.00 potential annual savings for 20 years will cost taxpayers $102 million.
Essex’s $3.9 million will cost taxpayers $78 million in 20 years.
While Amherstburg is expected to save $14 million, Essex taxpayers will spend $24 million less than us over the same time period.
I maintain that because Amherstburg did not obtain an OPP costing, despite carrying two motions to do so, Amherstburg taxpayers missed the opportunity to know if more savings were possible.
Commentary by Linda Saxon
Commentary by Linda Saxon
On February 27, 2018, I requested CAO John Miceli answer three questions for me to post to theburgwatch.
On March 1, I emailed Miceli, cc council, that if he was unavailable to respond to my media questions, if he would please forward them to someone who can.
Eight minutes later, Miceli responded:
“All of the questions that you are asking are in relation to an OPP costing process. As you may or may not know the Town did not request an OPP costing instead the Town developed an RFP dictating the minimum level of service requested from proponents. Council approved this method of procurement of services and the OPP was invited to participate in the process. The OPP elected not to respond to the Town’s RFP. All of this was disclosed in public reports. With that being the case I do not believe I can offer you any further information.”
Unsure that there had been any investigation into obtaining the requested documentation, I emailed Miceli back:
“If you review my questions, the first involves Ministry Advisors, as mentioned in the OACP Guidebook you relied on and i’m merely asking if any were involved in the police costing process, in other words, the costing process the town undertook.
i conclude from your response that Berthiaume never did complete the form for the OPP; did he complete an equivalent form for Windsor?
As reported on Windsorite.ca, Town Council decided in favour of a 20 year contract with Windsor Police.
Election day is October 22, 2018.
Commentary by Linda Saxon
I emailed members of council the following:
As happy as I would be to be rid of Berthiaume, the Amherstburg police service and board, I fail to see how a contract with Windsor police will benefit the ratepayers, never mind entrenching a 20 year contract.
I wonder what all of you would say about such a contract if you were campaigning against a current council right now.
In my opinion, this costing process has not been transparent and it lacked accountability and responsibility.
Shortly after being elected, council was committed to obtaining all police costing comparisons.
The media reported that a committee was established to discuss costings.
The JPAC recommended that administration be directed to hire MPM Consulting and the media reported in January 2017 a consultant was hired to “weigh the benefits of keeping its own police force, amalgamating with another force or hiring the OPP.”
At the same time, the JPAC recommended that administration be directed to, in part, develop an RFP for Windsor and LaSalle to respond to and work with the OPP on the OPP costing.
It appeared the OPP would still be an option and that council was committed to its two motions to obtain an OPP costing despite the committee determining earlier the OPP costing was not feasible.
Council should have held administration and the JPAC accountable for not implementing council’s motions.
The River Town Times reported Town council wants to make the decision once and doesn’t want to accept or reject any proposal without knowing all the details, DiCarlo said. “It was always council’s position to look at all of the options at the same time,” he said. “The goal is to have all of the information in front of us.” (emphasis added).
In the end, taxpayers were denied an opportunity to provide input on a comparison of all policing costs and options and instead were reduced to submitting subjective and emotional responses to a limited choice.
Commentary by Linda Saxon
In response to Glenn Swinton’s letter to the editor, River Town Times.
Glenn Swinton asked some sensible questions; however I wonder if one might not have been posed had the facts been known.
Mr. Swinton asked, “why are we now ‘negotiating’ the RFP with Windsor and not trying to accommodate or meet service levels from the other services that didn’t want to meet the RFP in the first place?”
The then-newly formed Joint Police Advisory Committee determined in July 2016 the OPP costing process was not feasible and the Municipality should drive the process to include bids.
While some municipalities issue RFPs for consultants and establish costing committees to compare all policing options, Amherstburg devised a Joint Police Advisory Committee (JPAC) to ‘guide the development for a Request For Proposal (RFP) and hired a consultant to assist the committee.
It wasn’t that the OPP opted out; the OPP were ready to commence the costing proposal process for Amherstburg in June 2017 following the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services approved OPP costing process.
The OPP requested dates to schedule a meet and greet and asked CAO John Miceli to forward the Municipal Police Service Profile form to Chief Berthiaume or his designate for completion and return within four weeks; this would have been step three of the process.
The RFP was issued in July 2017. Everyone involved ought to have known an RFP for services was a different process than the Ministry-approved OPP costing process implemented around the province.
The JPAC received the OPP Information Manual for the OPP Contract Proposal Process detailing the steps to be followed. And, even though the committee used guidelines for the review of policing options from the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, the OPP process was also detailed in it.
The committee also discussed public consultation prior to the RFP even being developed and ratepayers should have had the opportunity to express the level of policing service they expect.
Instead, the public’s choice was limited to maintaining the status quo or selecting Windsor Police Service without knowing if there were better alternatives, despite elected officials’ promises to explore all cost saving options.
Note: CAO John Micelli has not responded to a request for the policing Request for Proposal. Since the original commentary was in response to information and quotes in the Windsor Star, no corrections will be made.
The Mayor’s comment is set out below here and following the original post, Policing In Amherstburg – Who Knows Best?
Aldo DiCarlo on said
No disrespect, but your assumption of what was presented for ALL parties to quote, is not correct. The assumption that we demanded the organisational structure we currently have remain in tact is incorrect. What we provided as our guidelines was that any parties confirm their costing. For example, if we asked for 3 or 6 officers, we expected to have that confirmed in returned service. We are not going to pay for patrols we aren’t getting. The OPP model will tell you what they believe you need, fair enough, but they won’t confirm that you will get what you pay for. As mayor, accountable to confirm the taxpayers funds are being used accordingly, I am not okay with that. The OPP did not opt not to cost because they didn’t agree with our service levels, they declined to cost because they refuse to confirm service levels after you’ve contracted them. This I have confirmed with other municipalities who have switched to OPP. There will be a definite savings offered by Windsor, which residents will see as equal to or better than OPP’s current model, the question is “are residents even interested in switching to enjoy those savings?”. So far, the resounding answer to me has been ‘no thanks, we’ll pay the extra’. Thanks for keeping Amherstburg residents informed.
Also note, any typos were originated from the commenter’s submission.
the burg watch 