Councillors ‘ beat up’ over chief deal
Constituents, politicians frustrated over lack of answers from police services board
Kelly Edgar is starting to feel like a punching bag.
Everywhere he goes these days, he said, he is getting beat up.
“My constituents want answers, and I can’t give them answers,” said the St. Catharines regional councillor. “I have questions, too, but I am probably not going to get ( answers).”
The question Edgar said he gets almost daily is a direct one: Why did the Niagara Regional Police services board offer former NRP chief Jeff McGuire $ 870,000 to retire early?
The question remains unanswered.
The police services board has faced public and political criticism over the deal since it released the details of McGuire’s contracts and retirement package online last month.
The former chief told The Standard that he intended to serve until his contract ended in 2020. Although he was in the first year of a three- year contract extension when he retired in June, McGuire said the board’s offer was too good to refuse.
The nearly $ 1- million retirement package included the payout of $ 870,000 paid in two instalments, plus his police vehicle, computer, cellphone and benefits.
The deal prompted outrage on social media from the public who, in the case of Edgar at least, are not shy about confronting politicians about it in person.
D u r i n g Wednesday’s Niagara Region corporate services committee meeting, Edgar said he has to “bear the slings and arrows of this from several of my constituents,” wanting to know why the board wanted McGuire to move to on.
“We did we have to buy him out if he was planning on finishing his contract and all this good stuff was happening and had happened under his watch,” Edgar said.
“I don’t see the reason, and lots of my constituents don’t see the reason he was given this wonderful golden parachute … What can I say to my constituents that are beating me up on this? And I am getting beat up on this.”
Police board chairman and Niagara Falls Coun. Bob Gale has steadfastly refused to discuss the reasons behind the board’s offer to McGuire.
However, sources have told The Standard that some board members were frustrated that McGuire’s contract extension, negotiated with the previous iteration of the board, extended beyond the next municipal election thereby robbing them of a chance to hire a police chief.
Since the retirement package details were published, Gale has also publicly criticized the extension as preventing the board from having the “control” to hire a police chief. He has not said why the board needed to hire a chief.
Gale answered a few questions about the package during the committee meeting Wednesday, but then left council chambers for the remainder of the debate, citing a conflict of interest.
St. Catharines Coun. Tim Rigby said if the board — it is made up of three regional councillors, a Region appointee and three provincial government appointees — had an issue with McGuire’s job performance, regional council should have been advised.
“Not the negotiating details of the deal, but they should have advised the citizens and their representatives there is an issue,” Rigby said. “There should have been some heads up on this issue.”
St. Cathairnes Coun. Brian Heit said he is as frustrated as Edgar and wanted clarification from board members on council who he said appeared to have pushed McGuire out of his job.
“We didn’t make that decision. It was the people we have sitting on the board — Regional Chair ( Alan) Caslin, Coun. ( David) Barrick ( Port Colborne) and councillor Gale,” Heit said. “Those are our representatives … That needs to be clarified.”
Like Edgar, Heit said he regularly faces questions from a concerned public, including at his bridge club and the grocery store.
“What’s the reason? The police services board will never tell us,” Heit said.
He said constituents are baffled, in part, because Caslin told 610 CKTB radio that McGuire wanted to retire — while the former chief said he did not.
“I mean, what the hell are we doing?” Heit said.
The services board paid for McGuire’s package out of the 2017 operating budget, which finished the year $ 7 million in the red largely due to unbudgeted retirements and an arbitrated contract settlement with the frontline officers union. The board raided NRP reserve funds to offset the deficit and will ask regional council to pay the remaining $ 2.4 million.
It was the second consecutive year the NRP overspent, and Gale said in November it’s likely 2018 would be another deficit year.
During an interview on CKTB Wednesday, Gale criticized The Standard for reporting he predicted a 2018 budget, saying he did not remember doing so.
During an interview with The Standard in November about the then projected 2017 deficit, Gale was asked if the service would be in a similar position by the end of 2018.
“Will we have this same conversation next year? I believe we will. I sure hope not, but I think we will,” Gale said.