Mayor plans return to police board
Bennett wants back on board to help implement changes to delivery of local policing under new Police Act rules
Mayor Daryl Bennett says he intend store turn to the Peter borough Police Services Board this fall, even though a recent report states it would be “unwise” to do so.
Toronto criminal lawyer Mark Sandler was appointed to oversee the “dysfunctional” police board for the first six months of 2017.
In a final report to the board, released last week, Sandler recommended that Bennett never take a seat again on the police board (even though he has a statutory right to do so).
But Bennett issued a press release Tuesday stating he wants back on the board this fall.
He wasn’t speaking to reporters about the decision on Tuesday, but in the release he states that he wants to return to the board this fall because a newly-revised Police Act is expected in a couple of months.
“The Police Services Act is archaic ,” he states in the release. “The way we deliver policing is unsustainable. I am closely following the provincial government’s review of the Police Services Act and I look forward to working as part of the Police Services Board on implementing the necessary changes under the new legislation,” he added.
Sandler was appointed as administrator of the police board in December by the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC), which had just released a damning report on the local board.
The report stated that the board was so dysfunctional it needed an administrator to step in and oversee it from Dec. 16 until July 1.
On Aug. 1, Sandler released an 80-page report to the board outlining his recommendations for improvement.
Some of those recommendations include creating a succession plan to replace soon-to-be-retired officers and coming up with ways to engage the public in board meetings.
But he also stated that Bennett should never sit on the board again. If Bennett does take a seat again, Sandler recommended what should happen next:
“Should the Mayor return to the board, the solicitor general and the OCPC carefully consider taking timely and effective action to avoid any dysfunction that threatens the board’s ability to discharge its statutory responsibilities,” Sandler wrote.
In the report, Sandler also explains why he thinks it’s a bad idea for the mayor to get back on the board.
“Before and during my time as administrator, the mayor made inflammatory, divisive and inaccurate comments about the senior leadership and the police service,” Sandler writes. “Legitimate concerns have been expressed about the ability of the board, and the police service itself, to function properly were he to return to the board.”
But in his release, Bennett points out that there had been a private contractual dispute between the police board and Chief Murray Rodd and Deputy Chief Tim Farquharson.
After the reorganization of the force, in 2015, Rodd and Farquhar son said there’s a clause in their contract that entitled them to a year’s salary apiece - even though they kept their jobs. They said they were entitled to a total of $460,000.
Although both an arbitrator and a judge upheld the claim, the police board refused to pay up – and later, the city filed a lawsuit against Rodd and Farquharson for the money.
The matter was settled out of court in October, although no one involved ever publicly said how much it ended up costing taxpayers.
“Mr. Sandler wants the provincial government to block me from returning to from returning to the board because, while I wasn’t a member of the board, I strongly disagreed that the chief and deputy chief were entitled to almost $500,000 in severance payments from taxpayers for jobs they kept during the ownership restructuring of the police service,” Bennett states in the release.
Allan Seabrooke, CAO for the city of Peterborough, said the mayor doesn’t have to ask council if he can return to the board – under the rules of the Police Act, he can return if he wishes.
Bennett was last on the police board five years ago. He suspended from the police board in 2012 following a budget dispute the year prior.
The police wanted a greater funding increase than Bennett was willing to tolerate; he challenged it, and a bitter dispute erupted.
Bennett was suspended from the board by the OCPC while it investigated 11 allegations of misconduct against him.
Following a lengthy hearing, Bennett was found guilty in 2014 of all 11 allegations and told he could never return to the board again.
But then in December, after Bennett resolved to take the findings to court, the OCPC dropped 10 of the 11 findings.
The finding that stuck was that he’d made disparaging comments about Police Chief Murray Rodd, during the dispute.
For example, he called Rodd “unprofessional” and said it was “an embarrassment” that Rodd was on the sunshine list.
Although Bennett didn’t dispute that finding, he didn’t apologize, either. No comment was available on Tuesday from Rodd or Farquharson on Bennett’s plan to return to the board.
Bob Hall, chairman of the police board, said that if the mayor returns, he will have to replace one of the two city councillors who sit on the board (either Coun. Dave Haacke or Coun. Dan McWilliams).
“If the mayor returns – which is his right – we’ll work in a positive, constructive way with him,” Hall said.