By Charlene Tebbutt

Concerns raised

Councillors speak out after resident questions police board appointments

Feb 13, 2019 | 2:00 PM

Concerns raised by a local resident over recent appointments to the Board of Police Commissioners drew comments from city councillors at their meeting this week.

A motion to simply receive and file a letter from Resident Pam Hanson was amended at city council’s executive committee meeting to include a clause that city administration also respond to Hanson’s complaint. Ward 5 Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick said nothing untoward happened when new members were named to the board and bristled at Hanson’s claims that proper procedure wasn’t followed.

In announcing the appointments in December, Mayor Greg Dionne also recommended Sheryl Kimbley as his pick for board chair. Ogrodnick said criticism of Dionne and City Clerk Sherry Person is unfounded.

“We need to let the writer of this letter know that procedure was followed … this person needs to be educated,” Ogrodnick said. “He [Dionne] wanted a particular person and he made it known who he wanted. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

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Hanson’s letter criticized the way the appointments were announced, specifically that Mayor Greg Dionne named the appointees before the list came before city council. The names were announced Dec. 6, the same day the agenda for the December council meeting was made public. The December meeting was held Dec. 10.

Hanson also criticized the “interruptions, harsh remarks and lack of decorum,” during council debate on the issue.

“The issue is not who was chosen to be on the board but in the manner in which it was done,” Hanson wrote in her letter. “It appears that the Mayor disregarded the Police Act and chose the chairperson and appointed the entire board himself making a premature media announcement. The City Clerk unwisely spoke in support of the Mayor that the procedures were followed correctly which they were not.”

Several councillors have also questioned the way the issue was handled. Ward 2 Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp said this week that concerns may be due to simply a perception that proper procedure wasn’t followed.

Ward 4 Coun. Don Cody said he supported the way the process was handled, adding that if he was mayor today, he would have done things the same way.

“What’s the difference if they have a press conference?” Cody said Monday.

Ward 6 Coun. Blake Edwards – who also sits on the Board of Police Commissioners – supported the appointments as well.

“I believe it’s a challenge and an attack on the mayor and it’s unfortunate,” he said.

The new Board of Police Commissioners was officially sworn in last month. As per Dionne’s recommendation, Sheryl Kimbley was sworn in as chair, making her the first woman to lead the board.

Appointments to the board used to be made solely by the mayor of the day, Dionne added, but he’s supported a change in the process during his time as mayor to include more members of the community.

Dionne said the city went out of its way to attract knowledgeable members of the community to the board, especially when it comes to issues such as violence and alcohol and drug abuse, adding the city also has to get better at insuring community boards are more balanced when it comes to gender.

“You have to engage the public on what they have knowledge of because then you’re going to make the right decision … and they already understand what the others partners are doing to help the police.”

(Photo: Charlene Tebbutt/paNOW Staff)

Charlene.tebbutt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @CharleneTebbutt