Vol. 2 No. 12
YOUR LOCAL, INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER - SMITHS FALLS, PERTH & REGION
DECEMBER 2015
Perth & District Children’s Santa Claus Parade put on a great visual and musical display of floats lit with christmas lights, children carolling and of course, jolly old Saint Nicholas!
Smiths Falls Police Services Board budget passes without increase Smiths falls-Sally Smith
The Smiths Falls Police Service Board accepted and passed its $4.7 million budget for 2016 at a meeting early December. Chief Robert Dowdall said this was $175,000 under budget but he expected that to change in the last month of the year. Board members scrutinized the budget line by line; councillor Chris Cummings, council appointed member of the PSB, asked for clarification in some of the line items. He noticed, and commented on with approval, a “reduction in the salary line of a few thousand dollars.” Part of the budget includes an increase in costs for criminal record checks, ac-
cording to Chief Dowdall. As of Jan. 1, the fee will rise to $35 from $27, If fingerprints are required, that will cost $35, up $10 from the previous cost. He asked about new cruisers; the Chief explained that two new vehicles would be required in the next couple of years as two of the present cars are “eight- to nineyears-old.” The Chief added that police vehicles are “specialty vehicles” because of the way they have to be driven. Cummings asked about $21,000 for pistols. The Chief said “we need pistols. Ours are 22- to 23-yearsold,” indicating they were beyond the date they should have been replaced. The $21,000 cost was slightly offset by a reduction of $3,500 in firearms training (so, in
fact, the $21,000 becomes $17,500). The Chief noted there was no give-and-take on the building costs, like interest, principal, hydro, gas and water; those costs are set and there could be no reduction there. As such, a further reduction in the 2016 budget is “probably not possible.” Mayor Shawn Pankow touched on the overtime costs which had dropped from $100,000 to $75,000; the Chief cautioned that that number could “go out the window” if there was a major disaster in town. Tom Ariss, vice-chair and provincial appointee to the board, applauded the work and due diligence done. Cummings commented the Chief had “really pared down the budget” to the point that every item in the
budget would be required to keep the current level of service, implying there was no fat in the budget. “It took a lot of playing around to get to 0 percent. “If we can do this year what we did last year with a zero percent increase, it’s pretty impressive.” In early November, the Chief and his staff presented a zero percent draft budget to the Board. The Police Services Board is an autonomous body, which, among other criterion looks at presenting Smiths Falls’ residents with efficient and cost-effective policing free from the influence of politics. At that time a suggestion was made to the Chief to bring estimates to the table of what a 10 percent reduction of the zero percent draft
budget would look like. As 88 percent of the $4.7 million police budget is benefits and salaries, asking to cut by 10 percent is asking to cut staff or services. If staff is on the line, discussions would include the Police Association which represents uniformed officers. The police budget will go to council in mid-January and be included as part of the regular town budget discussions. Once all departments have made their presentations, then council will consider the budget as a whole in a series of meetings. Watch the town website for dates. However, if council for some reason sends the police budget back to the Chief and the Police Services Board and asks for more trimming, they can say ‘yes, we’ll try’ or
smiths falls
perth
Carleton Place
Kindergarten children from Chimo Elementary School write letters to Santa
Perth Woman in the running for Canada’s Worst Driver
Giving the Carleton Place Arena a Facelift
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‘no, that’s the best we can do.’ If there is an impasse, the budget then goes to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission. “Nobody wants to go that route,” says Chief Dowdall, adding he’s “confident it shouldn’t happen this year. “It’s a responsible budget.” One of the Commission’s tasks is to “adjudicate disputes between municipal councils and police service boards involving budget matters.” That takes time and costs money. At the Dec. 10 PSB meeting, board members discussed how to present the budget to the public before it’s included in the overall town budget.
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