As noted on the OCPC site, the Report of the Ontario Civilian Police Commission: The Windsor Police Service and The Windsor Police Services Board is available (PDF or HTML).
Police Costing Comparison Amherstburg And Orangeville Part 4 Mayor’s Statement
Part 4 of this series was delayed pending the outcome of my January 17 request to Mayor DiCarlo. A simple question resulted in a complicated process without an answer; more on that below and in a future post.
Orangeville Mayor Brown issued a formal Statement on Orangeville Council’s OPP decision the day after and it is posted on the town of Orangeville’s site.
January 17 to DiCarlo, one of the questions submitted regarding the Windsor Police takeover was: would you please provide me with any official statement you issued as mayor regarding the vote in favour of the windsor police takeover.
January 20, Mayor DiCarlo’s response was: Unfortunately I do not keep personal records of the information you are requesting as the Town is responsible for such. Please forward your requests to the CAO’s office.
January 20 to DiCarlo: just to clarify, i’m not requesting personal records and i do not believe the town is responsible for an official statement you may have issued as mayor. my question is simply did you issue one in relation to the windsor police takeover?
January 20 from DiCarlo: I understood what you were requesting. Any official statements I made would have been forwarded by/through the Town, not me personally. I don’t keep copies of those. If they were made to the media, they would be available in the media. I do not keep a record of all of my media interviews. I cannot provide records of information I do not keep. However, the parties I referred to do keep those records, thus my referral to the CAO’s office.
January 20 to Miceli: since the mayor has referred me to contact you, i’m requesting any official statement the mayor issued regarding the vote in favour of the windsor police takeover.
January 27 to Miceli: followup
February 12 to council: request that council consider creating a protocol to answer inquiries from taxpayers and media; mentioned a couple of examples of exchanges with town employees, including Miceli not answering January 20 and 27 emails.
February 12: DiCarlo forwarded request to council to CAO Miceli with an FYI notation.
February 18 from Miceli, in part: I will request that all information you seek be made through MFIPPA process and the Clerk will determine the appropriate dissemination of information. This is the proper way to handle your requests.
February 18 to Miceli: not all requests require a formal FOI request when dealing with an open government; since I believe one is unnecessary in this instance, my requests stand. the mayor claimed you have the records so you will have to decide whether or not to honour my requests.
Police Costing Comparison Amherstburg And Orangeville Part 3 Council Motions Requesting OPP Costing
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
- 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
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
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.”
Windsor Police: One Down, 19 Years To Go
The Windsor Star also reports how pleased Mayor DiCarlo is, “Our goal was to try to ensure residents felt no difference … For those who were concerned about a drop in service level — That just didn’t happen. I would say that it appears we have improved service levels.”
Mayor DiCarlo Pleased With Windsor Police
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
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.
Berthiaume Sues For $10,445.95 Stat Pay
Seriously?
According to the Windsor Star article by Doug Schmidt, Berthiaume is claiming unpaid statutory holiday pay covering an 18-month period that includes a 6-month paid hiatus.
the burg watch 