According to legislation, the Nelson Police Department (NPD) - through its Board - has to present to Council a Provisional Budget (PB) by the end of November for the following year. This requested - and in the meantime still tweakable - game-plan then approved-or-not within Council's general financial budgeting for that year.
Such PB was submitted, 16 Nov, 2015, by one member of the Nelson Police Board (NPB) and Deputy Police Chief Burkart - although the
REQUEST TO APPEAR AS DELEGATION says
Chief Constable Holland will present the budget accompanied by Deputy Chief Burkart, Police Board Directors Roger Higgins (Municipal representative), Robert Goertz and Barb Henry (Provincial representatives).
From 5 down to 2, with the top missing. Probably in a pout. Still. Or else distancing himself from all of it: while originated by him - left to his successor to sort.
PB 2016 is - supposedly - an exact rerun of PB 2015: that at the time rejected by Council and now/still looked at elsewhere by the Director of Police Services.
While he is deliberating: one expects Council will compare PB 2016 word-for-word with PB 2015. Just in case - seeing that the parameters have changed considerably.
Sparse info attached to the agenda of the above Council Meeting simply states
OUR NEEDS ARE CONSISTENT WITH THOSE OF 2015
AN INCREASE IN AUTHORIZED STRENGTH OF TWO CONSTABLES + ONE ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR
while not mentioning the PB 2015 price-tag of $311.000.
"Supposedly an exact rerun" as one wonders why PB 2016 was not attached to the agenda. Can't be found on the NPD/NPB website.
Following are salient points from PB 2015.
More detail to be found in post
Cop-Shop Deluxe
20 Jan, 2015
and as lead-in to that in
Fund-a-mental Nelson!
31 Dec, 2014
1.
Hands-on: Cash!
Before presentation of PB 2015 the NPD kept vigorously beating its drums - in the endlessly obliging Nelson Star - about being ever so stressed by just about uncontrollable masses of homeless, druggies and mentals. Only to be got under firm control with more cops and/or a Car 87. This drumming continued after presentation of PB 2015, asking for a budget-increase of $311.000 for additional cops yet no Car 87. Homeless, druggies and mentals not mentioned in it either.
Then drums went silent. Neither the NPD nor the Star explained this abrupt switch to not a single homeless, druggie, mental - and limo-service for them - any longer!
Unless the whole thing had been just a PR stunt to get this - to most everybody else unreasonable - budget-increase, and the cop-shop had realized the increase was a no-go!
2.
Heads-on: Intentions!
How this cash-inflow would influence the cop-shop is - almost verbatim - lifted from a book:
The Seven Essential Principles of Police-Based Crime-Reduction
by
Drs. Irwin Cohen/Darryl Plecas -
both teaching at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV). Where they published this work: very shortly before presentation of PB 2015 and without relevance to the Nelson-beat where we - according to Chief Holland - have a relatively low crime-rate to begin with.
Plecas - then fervent advocate against legalization of pot and frequent advisor to cop-shops and the RCMP - his UFV Chair funded by the latter - has a reputation among some academic peers for unorthodox research-methods. Ironically - around the same time - cop-shop members of his home-base Abbotsford were under official scrutiny over irregular practices.
Hands-off!
If PB 2016 is an exact repeat of PB 2015 one must wonder at how much of PB 2015 applies even less today. Clearly - like any other place in BC - we have challenges with homeless, drugs and mental health. But today nobody here - including the NPD - claims their numbers and impact to be out of control. We are prepared to work on this collectively. Which should moot the NPD's budget-increase for more cops: homelessness and mental health not within their expertise anyway!
While reference to the dubious and irrelevant-to-us crime-fighter commandments from out of town - backbone of PB 2015 - should have been replaced with something reality-based - something now/here!
The NPD today actually-really is a man short because Cst Turner - presently(?) under house-arrest - is an unworkable twice-proven liability. They would be well-advised to let him go and hire someone fully functional within the cop-shop and community. This in itself surely would raise the level of cop-morale - thus overall in-house-and-out effectiveness.
Adding bizarre to bizarre: the Nelson tax-payer - not Turner, not the NPD, not the NPB - got stuck with Turner's legal costs. How much - has not been made public!
Public confidence in the NPD/NPB? Not so much, Director Pecknold, Police Services!
Council will be in an unenviable position concerning the current NPD budget-proposal: if identical - this even less acceptable than the last.
Cutler-and-Gross Lookbook
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