A proposed 19% increase in the cost of policing in Brockton has been shelved by council until the next meeting Nov. 24th.
Brockton Mayor Charlie Bagnato says the last agreement ran out Oct. 18th, but they are operating for up to 6 months under the old terms… until a new contract is signed.
Bagnato says council has bawked at a 400 thousand dollar increase by the OPP but there isn’t much wiggle room.
If nothing was changed, he says the 400 thousand dollar increase in policing costs would hike property taxes by 10%, something he calls totally unacceptable in today’s economy.
Bagnato blames a lot of the increase on the fact that the formula used to determine the costs was dated from 1999 so the cost of fuel for police cars has soared and not been reflected in the latest contract.
Bagnato says 1 additional officer would be hired under the proposed contract to deal with courtroom security but no other additional OPP officers would be hired.
The only area Bagnato says they could cut is the part where an officer is kept in the schools.
He says the province is only picking up about 35 thousand dollars of the cost and that leaves the municipality with more than double that amount to pay for in the contract.
Bagnato says that officer position may be eliminated, but there is little else to trim.
