We have all heard the news that three former employees of the Amherstburg Police Services will receive severance packages. Those packages will total approximately $689,000. Perhaps it will be more if pension and benefits are added on, but the reporting was not clear.
For those of you keeping score, $689,000 is roughly the equivalent of a 3% change in the property tax rate.
Severance pay is based on the contract between the Amherstburg Police Service and the employees. You can view the whole contract by clicking here:
www.sdc.gov.on.ca/sites/mol/drs/ca/Public%20Administration/913-25547-19%20(951-0310).pdf
But you don't have to read the whole contact. Here is Section 34.04, the key portion of that contract, with emphasis put on the most important words:
"In the event that the Board receives permission to disband the Service and contracts policing to another police service, other than the Ontario Provincial Police, or amalgamates with another police service, any member of the Association who is not offered the same or higher rank or classification level without loss of seniority, and an equivalent or improved salary and benefits package as provided in this Agreement shall be entitled to elect to receive a severance package, as provided in Article 34.02(a), (b) and (c), or the member may elect to accept the position offered at the lower rank or classification and lower salary, in which case the Board shall pay to the member the difference in salary between the salary provided in this Agreement and the salary received in the new position, for a period of two (2) years."
In order to assist in reading what we call the "operative" parts of the above clause, here is the same clause translated into English:
"If you contract your police through someone else, like Windsor, the new contract must give the Amherstburg Police employees 100% exactly what they had under the old contract, or more. And if the new contract is in any way, shape or form less than the old contract, even by one penny, then the Amherstburg Police employee shall be entitled to get a big, fat severance package."
Everyone knew this clause existed in the contract. It is commonly called the "poison pill" clause. It has been known literally for years. The Amherstburg Police Service Board made it known to everyone. In particular, Bob Rozankovic and Pauline Gemmell, two members of the Board, were very clear and vocal about the consequences of a policing switch.
No attempt was made to renegotiate the "poison pill" clause, and no attempt was made to seek a judicial interpretation from the court before signing a new deal with the City of Windsor. The majority of the last Council went ahead with the Windsor policing deal anyway. Well, three out of seven members of the last Council because two were not eligible to vote on it.
They signed the Windsor deal in the face of fierce local opposition, knowing all the risk under the "poison pill" clause, and despite warnings from Bob and Pauline. And then we, the taxpayers, got stuck with the consequences.
And to be clear, everyone predicted the severance costs. People talked about the severance costs during public meetings on policing. There were even letters to the editor about it. You can read a very good one from October 2018 right here:
This is why I find it inexplicable that public promises were made to the contrary. Equally inexplicable is the fact that the payment of severance costs would even be questioned inside Town Hall. Yet, on December 20, 2018, a special meeting was convened at Town Hall for the purpose of telling Council members... well... what exactly?
That there would be no severance costs? In the face of the famous "poison pill" clause? Why did you think the poison pill clause was there in the first place? It certainly wasn't there to make things cheap and easy. The poison pill clause was put in place to make things hard and expensive. It was put in place to make it poisonous to switch to a different police force. The word "poison" in "poison pill" is obvious.
Everyone knew the poison pill was there. The last Council decided to swallow it. If you swallow a poison pill, be prepared for the consequences.
For those of you keeping score, $689,000 is roughly the equivalent of a 3% change in the property tax rate.
Severance pay is based on the contract between the Amherstburg Police Service and the employees. You can view the whole contract by clicking here:
www.sdc.gov.on.ca/sites/mol/drs/ca/Public%20Administration/913-25547-19%20(951-0310).pdf
But you don't have to read the whole contact. Here is Section 34.04, the key portion of that contract, with emphasis put on the most important words:
"In the event that the Board receives permission to disband the Service and contracts policing to another police service, other than the Ontario Provincial Police, or amalgamates with another police service, any member of the Association who is not offered the same or higher rank or classification level without loss of seniority, and an equivalent or improved salary and benefits package as provided in this Agreement shall be entitled to elect to receive a severance package, as provided in Article 34.02(a), (b) and (c), or the member may elect to accept the position offered at the lower rank or classification and lower salary, in which case the Board shall pay to the member the difference in salary between the salary provided in this Agreement and the salary received in the new position, for a period of two (2) years."
In order to assist in reading what we call the "operative" parts of the above clause, here is the same clause translated into English:
"If you contract your police through someone else, like Windsor, the new contract must give the Amherstburg Police employees 100% exactly what they had under the old contract, or more. And if the new contract is in any way, shape or form less than the old contract, even by one penny, then the Amherstburg Police employee shall be entitled to get a big, fat severance package."
Everyone knew this clause existed in the contract. It is commonly called the "poison pill" clause. It has been known literally for years. The Amherstburg Police Service Board made it known to everyone. In particular, Bob Rozankovic and Pauline Gemmell, two members of the Board, were very clear and vocal about the consequences of a policing switch.
No attempt was made to renegotiate the "poison pill" clause, and no attempt was made to seek a judicial interpretation from the court before signing a new deal with the City of Windsor. The majority of the last Council went ahead with the Windsor policing deal anyway. Well, three out of seven members of the last Council because two were not eligible to vote on it.
They signed the Windsor deal in the face of fierce local opposition, knowing all the risk under the "poison pill" clause, and despite warnings from Bob and Pauline. And then we, the taxpayers, got stuck with the consequences.
And to be clear, everyone predicted the severance costs. People talked about the severance costs during public meetings on policing. There were even letters to the editor about it. You can read a very good one from October 2018 right here:
This is why I find it inexplicable that public promises were made to the contrary. Equally inexplicable is the fact that the payment of severance costs would even be questioned inside Town Hall. Yet, on December 20, 2018, a special meeting was convened at Town Hall for the purpose of telling Council members... well... what exactly?
That there would be no severance costs? In the face of the famous "poison pill" clause? Why did you think the poison pill clause was there in the first place? It certainly wasn't there to make things cheap and easy. The poison pill clause was put in place to make things hard and expensive. It was put in place to make it poisonous to switch to a different police force. The word "poison" in "poison pill" is obvious.
Everyone knew the poison pill was there. The last Council decided to swallow it. If you swallow a poison pill, be prepared for the consequences.