The city's police chief is feeling frustrated that the police service budget will again be in the red.
As of June 2015, the operating budget for the Thunder Bay Police Service is projecting a variance of 2.6 per cent, or just more than $1 million.
During the Thunder Bay Police Service Board meeting Tuesday, police chief J.P. Levesque said one of the mistakes made with the budget is not adjusting for overtime.
“I certainly find it frustrating that the approved budget is not going to be enough to get us through the year,” Levesque said during the meeting.
Levesque said the two usual suspects that lead to budget variances include overtime and legal fees.
“We’ve put some policy in place to try to stem the flow of overtime, but it’s difficult to maintain staying on budget when you can’t predict what will happen in terms of major incidents such as homicides, standoffs, things of that nature,” Levesque said after the meeting.
Levesque suggested using a five-year average as a way of budgeting for overtime in the next budget.
“I think when it comes time to present the 2017 budget to city council, it is a reasonable representation of what kind of money we do need to run the organization,” he said.
“It’s frustrating for me. I have a pretty good sense of knowing where we need to be so we come in at zero or close to zero.”
Police Service board member Joe Virdiramo said the board needs to be cognizant of the fact that funds are needed to keep the city safe, but city council also needs to cognizant that the city is facing financial issues and needs to deal with those, which includes the police budget.
“I think the city needs to realize that perhaps we need to look at budgeting for police services in a different way and ensure that there are funds there to do the job,” Virdiramo said.
In order to keep the budget on track, policy changes have been implemented regarding lieu time for staff, which Levesque admitted is not always popular with the membership.
“It’s a balancing act,” he said. “I like to think I have a pretty good relationship with the Police Association and their executive. I explained why I was doing it. I think they understand. They kind of see it as on the backs of their members, but something has to be done.”
Levesque added that the policy change is only temporary and he hopes things will be back to normal again in January.
Other items discussed included renovations to the Thunder Bay Police station on Balmoral Street. Levesque said the station is nearly at capacity with almost 20,000 property and stored items.
The renovations have been pushed back to 2019 and has a price tag of $3 million. The price could increase, unless some of the work is scaled back.
The renovations have been pushed back because according to Levesque, it came down to deciding to upgrade the radio system or renovating the building.
“The radio system was putting the public and our officers at risk, so it was an easy decision to make,” he told the board.
Also presented in the 2015 annual report was the results of a citizen satisfaction survey, which shows that the majority of people in Thunder Bay feel safe in their neighbourhoods.
Violent crimes are also down in 2015 to 1698 incidents from 1827 in 2014. But given the number of incidents that have already occurred this year, Levesque said that number could climb.
“Given the way this year is going with seven homicides already, and a record number of robberies, we are likely to see that crime severity index climb,” he said.
