Councillors take aim at former police chief McGuire
Two Niagara regional councillors are publicly questioning whether the people who hired the former police chief did their job properly.
Niagara Falls councillors Selina Volpatti and Bart Maves both raised questions about former Niagara Regional Police chief Jeff McGuire’s history with the Toronto police during a corporate services committee meeting Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Niagara Falls regional councillor and the chair of the police services board Bob Gale — under public and political fire for McGuire’s nearly $1 million retirement package — continued to question why the former chief was given a contract extension by the previous board.
“It sounds to me like a bunch of guys getting together and saying ‘Let’s extend it,’” Gale said on CKTB 610 AM radio Wednesday afternoon. “(Thorold regional councillor and former board chair) Henry D’Angela said he had a good relationship with the chief. So do I. I’d have a good relationship with you too if I gave you $300,000.”
Gale’s comments came after regional councillors debated McGuire’s retirement package during the committee meeting.
It was during that meeting Volpatti and Maves asked questions about McGuire’s role in the 2010 G20 protests in Toronto.
Toronto police were widely criticized for their handling of the situation, including corralling protestors in a process called “kettling.”
In 2015, a Toronto Police Services disciplinary hearing found the Superintendent Mark Fenton, commander of police forces during the incident, guilty of discreditable conduct and unnecessary exercise of authority.
In 2010, McGuire was Fenton’s superior officer but was not directly involved in the kettling. An investigation into the incident revealed a supportive email McGuire wrote to Fenton afterwards.
McGuire was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, Volpatti referenced the G20 incident twice during the committee meeting, pointing to news articles that said McGuire was Fenton’s superior. Afterwards, Maves asked if the Region’s human resources staff were involved in McGuire’s 2014 contract extension.
“When the contract was signed would our staff have known about the former chief ’s role in G20 incidents?” Maves said.
In an interview after the meeting, Volpatti asked why the G20 protests did not figure into McGuire’s hiring process.
“I have to wonder if the selection committee even checked McGuire’s references,” Volpatti said.
The Standard asked Volpatti if she had any evidence the selection committee didn’t do their due diligence or if there were any problems with McGuire’s performance as NRP chief.
Volpatti, who said the board would not have given McGuire such a hefty retirement package if his contract was never extended, did not.
“I don’t know where the mind of the board is. I am not on the board so I am not part of those discussions,” Volpatti said. “But don’t you think that the board wouldn’t have given him such a large payout if they didn’t have an issue with his job performance?”
During the committee meeting St. Catharines Coun. Bruce Timms said council has to respect the jurisdiction of the services board on police matters and move on. He also incorrectly claimed that the details of McGuire’s retirement package have been misreported by local news media.
Timms said the retirement package is $870,000 “all in”. However, the contract details — released publicly by the services board last month — shows the $870,000 was a cash payout to McGuire made in two instalments. Additionally, the former chief also received benefits, his police computer and customized Buick Enclave worth an estimated $50,000 to $60,000.
Timms did not reply to an interview request Wednesday.
McGuire, who retired in June during the first year of the threeyear contract extension, has said he fully intended to serve to the end of his contract in 2020, but the board’s offer was too good to refuse.
In an interview Wednesday, McGuire said when he was hired by the NRP in 2012, he raised the issue of G20 with the board at the time.
“I brought it up in the interest of full disclosure,” McGuire said. “It never came up again. And to suggest my retirement from the NRPS had anything at all to with G20 is ridiculous. It never came up.”
McGuire said his contract extension was also the result of conversations he had with the board.
In 2014, McGuire was being named in the Toronto press as a possible successor to the outgoing Toronto police chief.
“I didn’t want the men and women of the service to think that I had come to Niagara to get ‘Chief ’ on my resume and then go back to Toronto,” he said. “So I told the board we can negotiate a contract extension now and put a clause in there that says I won’t seek the Toronto job.”
Although the agreement which would have extended his contract was signed 39 days before the 2014 elections, McGuire and D’Angela said the deal was done in principle months before.
On CKTB, Gale said criticized the extension because it meant that his board — which was formed after the 2014 election — did not have control to hire a chief.
On the radio show, where Gale fielded questions from listeners critical of the retirement package, he said McGuire was a good chief.
D’Angela said Gale’s criticism of McGuire’s contract extension is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, since new NRP Chief Bryan MacCulloch was hired in September and voters return to the polls this October.
“How long is Chief MacCulloch’s contract? Does it end at this end of this term?” asked D’Angela. “He is critical of us, but he has done the same thing.”