An independent consultant will be hired to look at Owen Sound’s Police budget of 6 million dollars.
Police Chief Tom Kaye says the consultant will take their audited financial statements, look at operations, and then compare each line in the budget to the operation and service being provided.
Chief Kaye says there’s things in their budget that probably shouldn’t be there but have been grandfathered in.
He says that’s something the Police Services Board and City Council will have to look at and decide if it’s a policing cost or not.
He says the issue is not that the board is running out of money or they are over budget – he says it’s the 13th year in a row they’ve come in with a budget surplus.
Kaye says the meat of the issue stems from accounting.
Councillor and Police Services Board Member Deb Haswell says hiring an consultant comes from a motion City Councillors unanimously passed to find ways to save money.
Haswell says the Police Services Board then passed their own motion on Wednesday that asked Chief Kaye to find a consultant.
She says once in place – they expect a report back within six to eight weeks – likely before city budget deliberations.
According to Statistics Canada, the per capita cost for policing in Owen Sound is $268 dollars – compared to other similar sized city’s that number is middle of the pack.
But a city hall report has the city’s per capita cost at $321.40 – which according to them would be the second highest among 8 other similar communities.
Both Kaye and Haswell say you can’t go by those number because it’s like comparing apples to oranges.
And Kaye says 2009 is the last year Statistics Canada is doing per capita numbers for policing because they can be so skewed.
