I have been taking a look at the Amherstburg-Windsor policing contract, bit by bit, to inform the public of the various aspects of the contract. The first three posts dealing with the contract were POLICE EQUIPMENT SOLD FOR ONE DOLLAR, and AMHERSTBURG TAXPAYERS STILL PAY FOR DISPATCHING, RADIO, AND POLICE STATION, and AMHERSTBURG WILL SAVE NO MONEY ON POLICE. This is my fourth and final post on the Amherstburg-Windsor Police Contract.
The whole motivation for giving away our police force was to save money, supposedly. I don't believe Amherstburg will save any money, and I think I have demonstrated that fact in my previous posts. In this post, I will go even further. I will argue that real money-saving options were totally ignored.
To ground our discussion, I will point out that Amherstburg no longer has its own Police Chief or a Deputy Police Chief. We were supposed to save money by eliminating those two positions (although I am skeptical about that). Here is what they were paid, according to the 2017 Sunshine List:
The whole motivation for giving away our police force was to save money, supposedly. I don't believe Amherstburg will save any money, and I think I have demonstrated that fact in my previous posts. In this post, I will go even further. I will argue that real money-saving options were totally ignored.
To ground our discussion, I will point out that Amherstburg no longer has its own Police Chief or a Deputy Police Chief. We were supposed to save money by eliminating those two positions (although I am skeptical about that). Here is what they were paid, according to the 2017 Sunshine List:
So those two positions were paid a total of $310,921. But let's say you wanted to keep your Police Chief and your Deputy Police Chief. Then in order to save the same amount of money, you would simply eliminate some other positions instead. For example, here is a comparison of the cost of various positions at Town Hall:
So in the above example, instead of eliminating a whole police department, Amherstburg could have saved the same amount of money by eliminating the positions of Chief Administrative Offier and Director of Legislative Services.
I don't know if you can realistically run a municipality without a Chief Administrative Offier and Director of Legislative Services. However, there are at least a dozen positions at Town Hall (and probably more) that pay over $100,000 per year.
The simple point is this: If you are going to save money by eliminating positions, there were lots of options available. But none of them were looked at.
Here's another comparison. Let's take a look at the annual financial loss on the Libro Centre. The Libro numbers come from Amherstburg's 2019 projected budget. The Libro Recreation Centre is projected to lose $1.8 million in 2019 alone. I'm sure that most Amherstburg taxpayers will be blown away by these numbers.
I don't know if you can realistically run a municipality without a Chief Administrative Offier and Director of Legislative Services. However, there are at least a dozen positions at Town Hall (and probably more) that pay over $100,000 per year.
The simple point is this: If you are going to save money by eliminating positions, there were lots of options available. But none of them were looked at.
Here's another comparison. Let's take a look at the annual financial loss on the Libro Centre. The Libro numbers come from Amherstburg's 2019 projected budget. The Libro Recreation Centre is projected to lose $1.8 million in 2019 alone. I'm sure that most Amherstburg taxpayers will be blown away by these numbers.
The Libro Centre is projected to lose $1.8 million in 2019. You could pay 6 police chiefs plus 6 deputy police chiefs on what Amherstburg loses every year at the Libro Recreation Centre. But there was never any discussion on whether we should save our independent police department by reducing the losses at the Libro Centre.
Town Hall hired a consultant at $25,000 and spend 3 years exploring ways to dismantle Amherstburg's police department. Why didn't Town Hall hire a consultant and spend 3 years exploring ways to save money at the Libro Centre instead?
Amherstburg could have saved an entire police department simply by finding cost savings at the Libro Recreation Centre.
Amherstburg did not have to disband the Amherstburg Police Service. There were other options available to save money. Those options were simply not explored.
As an Amherstburg taxpayer, you have to wonder why.
Town Hall hired a consultant at $25,000 and spend 3 years exploring ways to dismantle Amherstburg's police department. Why didn't Town Hall hire a consultant and spend 3 years exploring ways to save money at the Libro Centre instead?
Amherstburg could have saved an entire police department simply by finding cost savings at the Libro Recreation Centre.
Amherstburg did not have to disband the Amherstburg Police Service. There were other options available to save money. Those options were simply not explored.
As an Amherstburg taxpayer, you have to wonder why.