Mayor vows to work well with police chief

Mayor Daryl Bennett says that when he returns to the Peterborough Police Services Board this fall, he’ll be able to work with police Chief Murray Rodd – even though the two have had a fraught working relationship for years.

“Yes I can work with Mr. Rodd – or with any other employee,” Bennett said in an interview Wednesday. “I can work with anybody. Can they work with me?”

Neither Rodd nor Deputy Chief Tim Farquharson commented on Bennett’s imminent return to the board, announced this week.

Bennett says he plans to get back on the board in fall, around the time when a newly revised Police Act is expected to be introduced.

He has often called the act “archaic” and he says he looks forward to the revisions.

On Tuesday, Bennett issued a press release revealing that he intends to return to the police board even though a recent report stated it would be “unwise” to do so.

Toronto criminal lawyer Mark Sandler was appointed by the province to oversee the“dysfunctional” Peter borough Police Services Board for the first six months of 2017.

In his final report to the board, released last week, Sandler recommended that Bennett never takes a seat again on the police board because the mayor has made “inflammatory, divisive and inaccurate comments” about senior police leaders, both in the last few years and over the last few months.

But when asked, on the day he released the report, to cite the specific comments made by the mayor in 2017, Sandler declined.

Bennett says he doesn’t believe the board was ever dysfunctional – even though it’s been through tumultuous times.

There was a bitter budget dispute between council and the board in 2011, for example, after which Bennett was suspended from the board (he was investigated for having made disparaging comments about the chief and about police, during the budget dispute).

After a lengthy hearing, the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) found Bennett guilty of all 11 allegations of misconduct brought up against him.

It was only after Bennett resolved to take the case to court that OCPC dropped 10 of the 11 findings (the one that stuck was that the mayor had called Rodd “unprofessional” and said it was an embarrassment he was on the Sunshine List – a comment Bennett says he stands behind).

Later, Rodd and Deputy Chief Tim Farquharson asked for a year’s severance pay apiece following a reorganization of the force – even though they kept their jobs.

A clause in their contracts allowed for it, and both an arbitrator and a judge upheld the claim.

But the board didn’t want to pay the $460,000 – and then the city, as the funder, filed a lawsuit against Rodd and Farquharson.

It was all settled out of court in October, although no one involved ever told the public how much it cost the taxpayer.

Next, the OCPC released a report saying the police board was so dysfunctional it needed an administrator – Sandler - to oversee the board from January to July, 2017.

Yet Bennett still questions why the OCPC thought Sandler should be appointed on an “emergency” basis to help the board.

“Tell me what the emergency was,” Bennett said. “This is a cooked-up scheme, in my estimation.”

He also said he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with having disagreement on a board.

“They ( board members) are not there to rubber-stamp. They’re not there to be cheerleaders,” Bennett said.

“There’s nothing in the Police Act that says you must be a cheerleader for your police, your deputy chief or your force. You’re there to offer governance and oversight in the public interest. You’re here to deal with the taxpayers’ needs – as it relates directly to police services.”