.jpg)
City Councillor Mike Anthony, seen here during last week's special budget meeting, moved a motion on Monday that invites Police Chief Paul Cook to appear before council to try and find more cost-cutting items in the Services' budget. PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI
City Council is going one step further in investigating some fuzzy details in the North Bay Police Services budget.
While the city’s operating budget was agreed upon earier this week, some city councillors still aren’t satisfied with the amount of money being spent when it comes to the cops.
On Monday, Coun. Mike Anthony put forward a successful motion that invites Police Chief Paul Cook to appear for a public presentation to discuss a variety of potential ways to reduce the Police Services’ budget.
With 14-cents of every 2014 tax dollar going towards the Police, Anthony feels like it is time to take extra steps in squeezing some savings wherever they can.
Anthony had originally suggested that council request the police reduce their $17 million budget by one per cent, which translates into roughly $170,000.
“Policing is really important and we respect the work that they do, but when the budget gets that big you have to start looking and asking ‘is this outstripping the citizens ability to pay?’” Anthony said on Monday. “I believe it is.”
But Chief Cook shunned the suggestion of that hefty budget hack last week, arguing that squeezing that much money out of their spending would be unreasonable.
Because some 90 per cent of their budget goes toward officer payroll and benefits, Cook said reducing their budget that drastically would require eliminating positions and, subsequently, reducing service levels.
In a follow up letter addressed to council, Police Board chairman Dennis O’Connor wrote that the cuts would likely impact the School Resource officers, Street Crime program and Mobile Crisis Team, to name a few.
But Anthony’s most recent motion is designed to simply open up the avenue for communication with the cops, as he says his cost-cutting questions go far beyond staffing and front-line services.
“I’m not talking about front-line officer cuts; I know they have written us a letter saying all we can do is front-line officer cuts,” said Anthony.
“But what I’m saying is, maybe if you replace half your fleet on a regular basis you couldn’t just replace a third? Is it true if you have a car washing contract, couldn’t you use the fire hall next door for the car washing? Is there sole sourcing for things like auto bodywork?” he added.
“I think these are questions that deserve to be answered when the budget is this large, in a municipality this size, with a budget that we all agree is tight.”
Coun. Mark King seconded the motion, suggesting he also had concerns for the costs associated with their policing contract with Callandar. He said he wants to get the real costs, as he currently feels like North Bay is subsidizing Callandar’s policing to an extent.
Anthony has previously suggested considering raising the policing fees in Callander by up to 10 per cent. Chief Cook has said they make money off the existing fees there, but Anthony said he still wants to explore the opportunity to save more.
Others around the council table, like Tanya Vrebosch and Sheldon Forgette, questioned Anthony’s timing with the motion, arguing that it is too late to find savings this year and could potentially jeopardize service levels.
“I would be more supportive if this was for the 2016 budget,” said Vrebosch. “I just don’t understand how we are getting into May and asking them to reduce their budget by another one per cent midway through the year.”
Despite their concerns, the city’s chief financial officer, Margaret Karpenko, said if savings are found during the year, they could be worked into the budget.
“You’ve got to start somewhere, and the Police budget has been growing over the last number of years,” said Anthony.
“I’ll just be happy if the Chief and perhaps some of the board will come back and discuss some of these alternative ideas instead of going right to the front-line to try and find savings,” he concluded.
The Police did, however, find $30,000 in savings less than a week before the final budget vote, which brought the overall operating tax levy down to a 2.17 per cent increase over last year’s.
Those savings were said to have been squeezed out of their sick leave bank.
@BertiLiam
