An old wound between London Police and City Hall was re-opened Monday night.
Councillors voted 6-5 in favour of asking the Ontario Civilian Police Commission to investigate last year’s budget breakdown between the police services board and city council.
At issue is whether Mayor Matt Brown impeded the process when a settlement offer was made by the Police Services Board last year.
“There’s a number of comments, there’s a number of statements out there, but there doesn’t seem to be any real truth as to what happened with that budget impasse, and I think it’s important thre’s an independent third party investigation to simply point out what happened,” said Rick Robson, President of the London Police Association.
In November, a letter was sent to councillors requesting their support or response to a probe by outgoing Police Services Board budget chief Paul Paolatto. Only four councillors responded to the letter, which was deemed disrespectful by police officials.
At Monday night’s meeting, Ward 4 Councillor Jesse Helmer took issue with Robson demanding a response to the letter calling for the investigation.
“This idea of doing an investigation, I think the chances that this is going to move things forward in a positive way is next to zero,” said Helmer.
The budget dispute was ultimately resolved, however, the deal cost the City $1-million more than the compromise proposed by the police services board.
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