The Owen Sound Police Service has brought forward a zero per cent budget increase.
Police board chair Garth Pierce presented the service’s budget to city council on Monday night.
Pierce says the board will continue to work on streamlining the numbers even further — but he cautions that things could always change in the event of a major investigation that requires large resources such as overtime.
He compares it to asking the city how much it’ll cost to remove snow this winter — such things just cannot be adequately planned for.
Pierce says significant savings are being generated by the decision to not replace the deputy chief’s position after Bill Sornberger was promoted to chief following Tom Kaye’s resignation.
That alone should put another 200 thousand dollars or so back into the coffers.
As well, a full-time IT position was turned into a part-time position following another resignation.
Two early retirements cost nothing to the police service and, while those positions will be filled, it won’t happen immediately — a process known as gapping.
Pierce says the police board is also counting on increases to revenue through the providing of third-party criminal records checks for firms and organizations, as well as the planned expansion of dispatch services to an outside community.
He wouldn’t say which community is purchasing the dispatch services because negotiations are not complete, but he says the deal is expected to take effect on January 1st.
The increased revenue has allowed the police to seek only 50 thousand dollars from the City toward its 400 thousand dollar capital budget.
Last year, the city was asked for 150 thousand dollars.
In 2010, the amount sought was 200 thousand dollars.
The police budget was welcomed by council, although Mayor Deb Haswell says it’s not a surprise to council that the police board was working toward a zero increase.
That’s different from last year, when council was pleasantly surprised by a police budget decrease of 2.55 per cent.
