West Grey Council has voted to spend $80,000 on a police costing consultant to help navigate the ins-and-outs of receiving a costing from the Ontario Provincial Police.
Councillors voted 4-3 Tuesday morning to allocate funds for the consultant after West Grey CAO Laura Johnston said staff was not equipped to handle the costing analysis themselves, and it was more appropriate to hire someone with expertise on the subject to provide the review.
Prior to the vote, Mayor Christine Robinson and Councillor Rebecca Hergert exchanged comments, with Mayor Robinson continuing to stress her unwavering opposition to the motion, saying "I continue to not hear any compelling reason to move ahead with this costing. We have an excellent police service, and there is no need for this motion."
Coun. Hergert appeared to fire back at the mayor's comments, saying "this has already been decided by council, and I would appreciate the support of all of council for the majority of council's decision. This does not come lightly, and does not come as a rebuking of our police force. We need to be responsible, and looking at budgets. This is a responsible budget review of a department. We have done this for every department other then the police, and the library. I look forward to this vote."
Mayor Robinson took advantage of a second time to speak and responded to Coun. Hergert, saying "I just want to say thank you very much to all the citizens that have provided the overwhelming emails and phone calls in support of our West Grey Police, and showing they are not in support of any OPP costing, or any additional funding being put towards OPP costing. I'm representative of our citizens, and I'm very much supporting that this motion does not go through."
In a recorded vote, Councillors Hergert, Townsend, Shea and Hamilton voted to spend the $80,000 on the consultant, while Mayor Robinson, Deputy Mayor Tom Hutchinson and Councillor Doug Hutchinson continued to oppose.
A late amendment proposed by Deputy Mayor Hutchinson would have seen West Grey staff reach out to the community for more consultation on how they feel about council taking in a costing from the OPP, but it was defeated along the same 4-3 lines as earlier votes on the matter.
CAO Johnston confirms staff will send a letter to the OPP to initiate the costing discussion "within the next couple of days."
