A’burg mayor decries loss of voting power on Windsor police board

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Amherstburg will have a voice but not a vote at the Windsor Police Services Board this term, a change the town’s new mayor says may influence whether his council renews its contract with the city force.

City council on Monday appointed a Windsor resident to the police board instead of Amherstburg Mayor Michael Prue, who also applied for the position — a position with voting power that was held by the town’s previous mayor, Aldo DiCarlo, last term.

Although Prue will still sit on the board in an advisory capacity, he told the Star that Amherstburg residents will likely take issue with his lack of voting power. He expects those concerns will come up during this year’s discussions on renewal of the town’s contract with the Windsor Police Service.

“I don’t think it’s enough. I don’t know that the townspeople think it’s enough.

“Revolutions have been fought for this,” Prue said. “The Americans said, ‘no taxation without representation.’ They founded the country on that basis.”

Signed in 2018, the policing contract between the Town of Amherstburg and the City of Windsor gave DiCarlo a voting seat on the Windsor Police Services Board for one term. During subsequent terms, the contract stipulated that Amherstburg would have an advisory seat on the board but no voting power.

DiCarlo’s appointment to the police board dislodged the city’s 2016 appointee Sophia Chisholm, senior vice-president of finance at Windsor Family Credit Union and an active community volunteer.

Council on Monday returned Chisholm to the board.

In a written statement to the Star, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, who is also police board chair, said the town’s non-voting advisory position is a “way to ensure the Mayor of Amherstburg would be at the table, able to participate in all dialogue and conversation regarding decisions affecting the entire (board), including the township”

In his recollection, Dilkens said, “there has yet to be an issue that has come to the Board’s attention that split opinions along geographic considerations.

“The role of the board is not to direct police operations to favour any ward of the City of Windsor or Town of Amherstburg,” Dilkens said. “Providing quality policing services to Amherstburg residents should be measured through the results delivered on the ground, and not by the composition of the board.”

Amherstburg’s council will review this year whether to renew its contract with Windsor police.

Amherstburg council narrowly voted to contract out its policing to Windsor’s police department in early 2018, boasting annual savings for the town of $570,000. The deal signed months later between the City of Windsor and the Town of Amherstburg had Windsor Police Service handling Amherstburg’s policing for 20 years, with a review every five years.

Although Prue was not on council at the time, he said it was a “highly contentious issue,” and he noted that some former councillors who supported the decision lost bids for re-election in 2022.

“I am not walking away,” Prue said. “I have a duty and a responsibility to the people of this town to represent them however I can on this board, until such time as the town decides where we go.”

Prue is not the only one taking issue with the police board’s makeup. Former board member Rino Bortolin, who represented Windsor’s Ward 3 on council for eight years and did not seek re-election in 2022, took to Twitter to share his opinion about the board.

Responding to news that city council’s lone public appointee to the board was Chisholm, Bortolin wrote that he was “disheartened.”

“We could have and should have added a community member with some ties to those impacted the most by our service. Instead we stacked it with more overt privilege.”

Dilkens said he was “dismayed” by Bortolin’s comments about the appointment of a “dedicated female community leader.

“Working with community advocates, including those representing persons experiencing homelessness, minority and vulnerable populations is an important part of the daily function that Chief Jason Bellaire and the senior leadership team are committed to.

“This work should be measured through results on the ground and not by the composition of a five-member board.”

Joining Chisholm and Dilkens on the board are Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac and Robert de Verteuil, who was reappointed by the province. The board’s second provincial appointee has not yet been named.

The board’s municipal and provincial appointees are paid $6,500 annually. Dilkens and Gignac do not receive payment for sitting on the board above and beyond their respective mayoral and council salaries.

tcampbell@postmedia.com

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