Column: Some Vancouver city council members hadn't realized the city had "effectively defunded" the police board with December amendment, said Green party Coun. Pete Fry.
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Vancouver police board vice-chair Frank Chong addresses city council at council’s weekly meeting, at city hall in Vancouver, BC Wednesday April 24, 2024.
Four months after Vancouver city councillors slashed the municipal police oversight body’s budget — and two weeks after the cut became public knowledge — they decided Wednesday to restore most of the funding.
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Council unanimously voted to boost the administration budget for the Vancouver police board, the independent civilian body that provides oversight and governance for the police department, to $690,000, less than the $908,000 proposed for this purpose in the department’s provisional budget, but more than double the $297,000 set last December by the ABC-majority council.
The police board’s 66 per cent budget cut received no public attention at the time, until Postmedia News reported on it earlier this month. The reduced board funding was supported by every ABC council member in the December budget meeting, but was presented in such a way that other parties’ councillors weren’t aware what had happened.
“A number of us hadn’t realized that the budget approval in December had effectively defunded the board,” Green party Coun. Pete Fry said Wednesday.
“We are now correcting what I believe was an error,” said Green Coun. Adriane Carr. “It was an error because I really strongly believe in the importance of civilian oversight of the police.”
OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle expressed frustration at ABC’s super-majority pushing through several significant, last-minute amendments, including this one, calling it a “very bad practice.”
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Last December, council approved boosting the VPD’s overall gross budget from $407 million in 2023 to $441 million for 2024, a year-over-year increase of eight per cent or $34 million. ABC’s decision at that time to cut the board’s budget kicked off a months-long behind the scenes discussion between the police board and city hall leadership.
Those discussions led to Wednesday’s meeting, where staff recommended council approve boosting the board’s 2024 budget to $690,000. In a report to council, city manager Paul Mochrie wrote: “There is a compelling argument that the board requires sufficient capacity and resources to fulfil its responsibility for governance for a large, complex police agency.”
City staff presented council with two options for boosting the board’s budget to $690,000: either increasing the department’s overall budget by the required amount, or authorizing the reallocation of funds within the VPD’s overall $441 million budget to cover the board’s funding. Council chose the second option.
Council could have, if they chose, decided against staff’s recommendation, and instead held the police board budget at $297,000. Had that happened, the board would have the option of appealing to the province for a determination.
The December amendment to cut the board’s budget to $297,000 was proposed by ABC Coun. Brian Montague, a long-time VPD officer before entering politics. Asked earlier this month about it, Montague told Postmedia he had concerns about “a lack of clear rationale” behind the board’s fast-growing expenditures, which increased from $278,000 in 2020 to $779,971 for 2023.
Montague was absent Wednesday, missing the day’s meeting for personal reasons.
Before Wednesday’s vote, councillors peppered Vancouver police board vice-chairman Frank Chong with queries. ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung questioned the rationale for the board’s budget increase in recent years. She said she was “deeply troubled” at the board’s budgeting practices, for “an organization that needs public trust.”
Chong replied the board’s staffing increased from 1 1/2 full-time equivalent employees to three. As well, certain board costs, such as legal and advisory services, had previously been embedded within the VPD’s much larger overall budget, and, in recent years, the board has changed its financial reporting to more accurately and transparently reflect those costs, Chong said. Those legal and advisory costs have also escalated while the board has faced a greater volume and complexity of public complaints.
Following the councillors’ questioning, ABC Mayor Ken Sim thanked Chong for “running the gauntlet here” and answering “tough questions.”
dfumano@postmedia.com
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