Administration recommends against police RFP bid

LEAMINGTON — Leamington Council was faced with one of their more important decisions at Tuesday night’s special council meeting and, although results were not available before presstime, the agenda indicated that policing had come down to one candidate.

Windsor Police Service and Chatham-Kent Police Service were the only two local forces to submit a bid based on Leamington’s Request for Proposal that was issued in September of last year.

Leamington’s policing contract with the Ontario Provincial Police expires on June 9, 2021.

Just last week, council voted to dissolve the Leamington Police Services Board, anticipating the expiry of the OPP contract. Administration had recommended establishing a new Community Policing Advisory Board, which will consist of the Mayor, Councillor John Hammond and the three community members currently on the board.

A year ago, council — frustrated by what they deemed a lack of communication — voted to terminate the contract with the OPP. They were required to give one year’s notice, which they did.

The OPP did not submit a proposal as the “requirements detailed in the Request for Proposal differ in significant ways from the Section 10 contract and legislated billing process.”

While the Windsor Police Service (WPS) bid was considered the better of the two bids, administration recommended to council that neither of the two be accepted.

Current costs for OPP under the now-expired contract are about $5.7 million annually. The WPS bid was $9.5 million, which is a significant increase.

Based on estimated costs and inflation, it’s estimated that Leamington would pay more than $11 million more over the next five years.

If Tuesday’s council meeting resulted in denying the bid from Windsor, Leamington will continue to be policed by the OPP, based on provision of the Police Act.

The report from administration said that, based on the enormous financial impacts, they cannot recommend council accept either proposal received, which would results in a substantial tax increase to ratepayers, or drastic cuts in current municipal services, or a combination of both.

A full story on the result will appear in next week’s Sun.