Consultant will prepare RFP for Municipal Police Service
By Scott Woodhouse - Express Staff

The committee, which is made up of all members of the Municipality of Meaford town council, met for the first time last Tuesday evening in the St. Vincent council chambers.

The committee decided it would rather move ahead with its own process rather than revisit and re-approve past resolution made by the Transition Board.

Committee chair Linda van Aalst said there had been a lot of work completed by the Police Task Group of the Transition Board, but added their resolutions were invalid now that the new council for the amalgamated municipality had taken office.

She said if the committee wanted to revisit the Transition Board minutes and resolutions, they would have to be re-approved by the new council.

That didn't make sense to councillor Sam Luckhardt.

"If we want to move forward, why are we going back," he said. "I'm just throwing this out there for discussion, but other than the background information, why do we need to go back? Let's move forward."

The rest of the committee agreed and a resolution was drawn up for council to approve at its next meeting. The resolution, moved by councillor Paul Hutchinson, called for requests for proposal for policing the new municipality from the Meaford/Thornbury Police Service, the OPP, and the Owen Sound City Police Service.

Mayor Gerald Shortt said he agreed with "two-thirds" of the resolution.

"I don't want to upset Owen Sound, but I don't want a police service where we don't have any say," he said.

Earlier in the meeting, the Solicitor General's representative, Police Services Advisor, Moe Hodgins, had explained the different governance structures that would be in place for the three different police services.

Under OPP contract policing, the service would be governed by a Police Service Board consisting of three or five members under Section 10 of the Police Act. If the service was provided by a municipal police force, it would be governed by a police services board, also with three or five members, under Section 27-31 of the Police Act.

If the Owen Sound City Police contracted to provide the service, Meaford would not have direct control through its own police services board, but would have some representation on the Owen Sound Police Service Board, Hodgson explained.

"I like to be in charge of my own destiny," said Shortt, adding he didn't think Owen Sound would be interested in bidding for the contract.

Councillor Luckhardt said Owen Sound might not be interested, but he felt they should be asked anyway. "I think we have to ask, just to make sure we get the best deal for our ratepayers," he said.

The committee approved the resolution by a 5-2 vote, with Mayor Shortt and councillor Hurlburt opposed.

The next order of business was the creation of an RFP - how it would be done and who would do it.

Earlier in the meeting, representatives from the OPP and the Meaford/Thornbury Police Service, both made it clear they wanted the bidding to be straightforward and fair.

OPP Inspector Art Goard told the committee it would be a difficult process and urged them to implement a communications strategy to ensure the process "moves forward in an honourable and professional fashion."

Steve Birchall, the Acting Chief of the Meaford/Thornbury Police Service said, "We just want to make sure we're bidding on the same numbers."

But he also added the committee had other options. He suggested the Meaford/Thornbury Police Service expand to cover the former townships as well as the town of Meaford for an interim period. "That would allow you to assess the force and then call for a costing," he said. "The Police Service Board would still control police services and there would be no severance packages or buy-outs at this time."

Birchall also suggested the municipality could consider a "hybrid" form of policing in which the OPP patrolled the former townships and the municipal force continued to police the former town, as is being done in Peel Region and the City of Timmins.

However, Police Service Advisor Hodgson strongly discouraged attempting a hybrid deal. "The message coming from the Ministry is not to allow hybrids," he said, adding that the Peel Region example was created by legislation long before the current round of amalgamations and the Timmins example was an interim measure until the city could create an RFP for a new police service.

"I would recommend that council give serious consideration to the Transition Board recommendation that a RFP be developed that clearly defines the service the municipality wants," said Hodgson.

The question now, was, who will prepare the RFP. An RFP is basically a blueprint of the level of service required by the municipality. he police services - OPP, Meaford/Thornbury, and Owen Sound, then bid on providing that level of service.

Committee chair van Aalst said they were using a standard blank form provided by the Solicitor General, but it needed up-to-date accurate data. She also noted, "We don't have a lot of time - the ministry is anxious to get the Blue Mountains situation resolved."

The committee asked Meaford CAO Chris Webb if the municipal staff could put together the RFP.

Webb said that with the present workload brought on by amalgamation, budgets, and taxes, the staff did not have the time to devote to this project.

"I would add, this process should be completely unbiased and done by a third party. I don't think it's appropriate for our staff to prepare the RFP and would appreciate council hiring a consultant to do the job," said Webb.

Hodgson supported the hiring of a consultant to get the job done. "It need not be long or expensive," he said.

The committee passed a resolution to hire a consultant to prepare the RFP.

"One thing we want to ensure is that we do this once, and that we do it properly," said van Aalt.