Police board chair expecting a full plate

Bob Hall has returned to chairing the Peterborough Police Services Board for 2021.

Hall was acclaimed at a virtual police board meeting on Tuesday. The first board meeting in January is usually when the chair is elected for the next year. Hall was chair previously, from the summer of 2015 until early January 2019. At that time he was succeeded by Coun. Gary Baldwin (who held the position for 2019 and 2020).

Hall said on Tuesday the board will have “a full plate” in 2021.

Significant projects will include adoption of a permanent bylaw to replace interim rules governing how ride-hailing operate in the city, for example, as well as coming up with a solution to the aging and cramped police station on Water Street, he said. It’s still unclear whether the current station will need to be replaced — on the same location or elsewhere — or upgraded with additional space.

All these decisions and more will come in 2021, Hall said: “It’s going to be a big year.”

Hall is a local teacher who was a city councillor for 17 years from 1998 to 2014.

He joined the police board in the summer of 2015. He’s also a director and the treasurer of the Canadian Association of Police Governance, the only national organization dedicated to police governance.

In 2019 and 2020 Hall was the finance chair for the police board.

The new finance chair for 2021 is Mary ten Doeschate, the new provincial appointee on the board since December. She was elected to the position on Tuesday.

Baldwin was elected chair of the labour relations committee for 2021. He said at the meeting he’s been asked to join the board of health and he didn’t wish to take on any further roles with the police board besides labour relations.

Hall’s first act as the new chair on Tuesday was to ask Chief Scott Gilbert about how new lockdown measures would be enforced locally.

Ontario is issuing an order requiring residents to stay at home starting Thursday, except for essential activities such as accessing health care or shopping for groceries. Under the provincewide lockdown, people aren’t allowed to invite anyone over who doesn’t live in their household. Breaking that rule can mean a provincial offence ticket with a set fine of $880.

Gilbert said he’s asking citizens to comply with that directive, adding police will not hesitate to impose fines .

“Enforcement will take place — and it won’t be cautions.”