Sparks fly when Edmonton cuts $ 22.2 million in police budget

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Sparks flew at the city hall on Wednesday when Congress plunged with police members beyond the potential $ 22.2 million cut in the Edmonton Police Services (EPS) budget next year, and one member called Congress. I was surprised. Ann Stevenson resigns from police oversight.

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The proposal to set EPS base funding at $ 385 million was slightly passed by a 3 to 2 vote after intense debate at a council committee meeting. The proposed amount is slightly higher than the current $ 384.9 million funded by the city tax, but excludes the annual replenishment from the photo radar ticket, which brought the 2022 total to $ 407.2 million. increase.

But before the vote by Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and councilors Erin Rutherford and Stephenson sent this proposal for council approval at the next meeting, Police Commission Chairman John McDougall said he could. I warned that I would be off the line.

“Arbitrarily assigning numbers to the police budget cuts off the bottom of the committee and robs us of our role,” he said.

The city is considering whether to lay the groundwork for police budgets after Congress shelved previous policies in 2020 that set up multi-year financing schemes that are heavily linked to population and inflation growth. Past formulas have led to an increase in EPS budget each year.

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The council heard on Wednesday from several speakers, city officials, police committees, and EPS chief Dale Makfi to give directions.

Some people have criticized the police’s placement of police officers downtown and, in recent years, large-scale purchases of armored cars and secret planes without much detail, adding more money to the sector’s financial resources. I opposed it.

Shalini Sinha, chair of the city’s Anti-Racism Advisory Group, spoke at a 2020 hearing about racial profiling by police, following 14 actions proposed by the Parliament-appointed Community Safety Task Force in 2021. I urged Congress to remember.

Robert Houle, a member of the task force, called on police for lack of transparency in spending, insisting on a budget freeze or rollback to 2019 levels, and police scrutinized its spending and performance. Insisted that you need to.

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Removed Stevenson from commission: Calahoo Stonehouse

Wednesday’s already heated budget debate went in the other direction as one of the police members demanded Stevenson to kick off the committee.

Commissioner Jody Karahu Stonehouse said he was unaware that Houle was working for Stevenson and expressed concern about his criticism of the police.

“She was soon expelled from the police committee, and due to the significant lack of trust from the Edmontonians, it is highly recommended to appoint another city council member (her successor),” she said. I told the meeting. “There is a conflict of interest.”

The Alberta Police Commission is intended to be a private body that provides police surveillance.

McDougal also told reporters that he was “anti-police, anti-chief Makfi, anti-city council,” fearing Stevenson did not reveal that Houle worked for her.

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Houle told Postmedia that his comments on police were fair and not instigating. “I think it was pretty clear that the police had a role to play.”

According to Houle, Calahoo’s public call was “unsolicited, a bit unprofessional, and definitely lacking in etiquette.” He said McDougal’s comments were blunt and “we couldn’t get far from the truth.”

According to Stevenson, Houle works about 10 hours a month as a strategic advisor to the indigenous framework and has no access to the commission business. She also sought Houle’s insight into safer things for all the recommendations for her council work, she said.

“I never want his employment to prevent him from talking about these issues. I think he’s an important voice in our community,” she told reporters Wednesday.

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Stevenson said it didn’t happen to her to disclose their work relationship because she thinks her work is separate from her work on the committee, which violates their code of conduct. He added that he did not.

Budget discussion

Rutherford said her heart was moving while the council was considering this controversial topic about her move.

“Some people feel safe with the presence of the police, others don’t. How can I fix it? Who do we listen to?” Believe us. ” How can you make sure that you can hear all your voices, including? “She said.

Rutherford was hesitant to propose a police funding level in response to strong public backlash after discussions on police funding last fall, but could put her card on the table. He said it was important.

“I’ve never seen it done this way,” McPhee told post-media after the meeting that he needed to handle Wednesday’s move.

Prior to 2016, EPS operating budgets were set annually during the city’s overall budgeting process, allowing departments to come to the council and present even more cases.

The council asked staff to consider this policy in 2020 and compare EPS funding with other jurisdictions. Staff returned to the council without analysis, saying such a comparison was too complicated.

lboothby@postmedia.com

@laurby