Council recently asked me to compare the OPP costing proposals to the Pembroke Police Service costs. This exercise is a financial comparison ONLY and is prepared for the purpose of assisting members of council in making the decision of whether to enter into a contract with the OPP for policing or to maintain the Pembroke Police Service. Members of Council have not been involved in this analysis and therefore have not had any input or influence. As a matter of fact, tonight is the first time members of council will see the results. The OPP have provided 2 proposals to the municipality, the first is for an “Integrated Satellite Service” which would incorporate the city’s contract with the Upper Ottawa Valley Detachment. The Detachment Commander in Petawawa would be responsible for the service and resources would be shared both physically and financially. The “Stand Alone” option is similar to the existing police force in that the commander and officers would be dedicated to Pembroke and the costs would not be shared. As with most things, there are advantages and disadvantages to both options that council would need to consider. 1
The first option I’ll review is for the Integrated Service. In order to conduct a complete analysis of the OPP costs as compared to the cost of the Pembroke Police Service, I felt it was necessary to project future costs for 2 reasons: 1. the existing service has a significant increase in the first draft of their 2012 budget; this is due in large part to the increase in legal fees which are necessary to resolve outstanding issues that must be dealt with regardless of council’s policing decis ion. 2. The OPP has been subject to a wage freeze which was imposed by the province and we anticipate a “catch up” will occur in 2014, which will result in a material change to the proposal. It is important to note that while the “one time” start up and disbandment costs are identified in this presentation, they ar e not included in the figures we are comparing. Also missing from the analogy is the capital cost of a policing facility, which will be required regardless of the policing decision. This slide identifies the costs of an Integrated Satellite Service as costed by the OPP: The figures in the upper portion of this slide were extracted from the OPP proposal, with the exception of 2014 which I will address shortly. Additional Municipal Costs section has been added to capture the following: The OPP costing proposal identified the exclusion of expenses for building maintenance and cleaning, which must be provided by the municipality. A contingency has been added to allow for future replacement of capital related to the building. The City is also required to provide the continuation of health care benefits for existing retired members to age 65, along with the costs of the Police Service Board. The next step is to allow credit for Municipal Revenues ; these will be received by the City regardless of the policing decision. Municipal Revenues & recoveries includes recovery of costs for providing prisoner protection, accident reports, criminal reference checks and other miscellaneous revenues. The funding that was recently allocated by the province to share the cost of Court Security is also reflected in this line. The policing grants, which we currently receive, are from the province and the municipality will continue to be eligible to receive them should the decision be made to sign a contract with the OPP for policing. As we progress through this presentation, you will see the same adjustments made to each OPP costing scenario as well as the Pembroke Police Service to ensure we are comparing “apples to apples.” The “total policing cost” reflects what the anticipated cost would be for the municipality and is ultimately compared to the Pembroke Police Service costs. 2
This slide represents the cost for the OPP to provide a “stand alone” police service, which would require 1 additional officer as well as an additional administrative Clerk. The 2014 projection for the OPP and the Additional Municipal Costs and Revenues mirror those used in the Integrated Service proposal. You will notice that the “one time” start up costs are slightly higher than the Integrated proposal in light of the increase in the staff complement. 3
This slide reviews the projected costs for the existing Pembroke Police Service. The budget for 2011 was included to show the 2012 budget is an exception rather than the norm. Keep in mind that this budget is a preliminary draft and has not been approved by the Police Service Board. For the purpose of forecasting budgets some assumptions had to be made. The first is for the provision of dispatch services which will be addressed at a hearing scheduled for March 7 th . The figures presented assume the dispatch contract is awarded to Owen Sound and includes severance costs in 2012. Also included in 2012 is 400,000 in legal fees to deal with outstanding matters. Legal fees have been reduced in subsequent years for the police service and the board. The collective agreements for the uniformed and civilian members expired at the end of 2011 and are being negotiated; in light of this, I have included a 3% increase for salaries and benefits in each year for illustrative purposes only. ALL “additional municipal costs” and “revenues” are included in these figures to ensure comparability with the OPP costing. 4
Now that the projected costs for each service have been presented I will move on to the actual monetary comparison and I stress monetary only; the first compares the OPP Integrated Proposal to the Pembroke Police Service. While 2012 figures have been included in this presentation, a policing change would not occur in this year and therefore the “potential Cost Reduction” is immaterial. With respect to future years, being 2013 and 2014, the city would achieve significant savings with the OPP Integrated proposal. 5
The other option that was presented by the OPP was for a stand alone service in the city. Once again, the potential cost reduction for 2012 is immaterial for this exercise. The potential savings from adopting this type of service is lower than the integrated service. 6
The disbandment costs for the OPP Stand Alone and the Integrated proposals are the same and are not dictated by the OPP. The start up costs for the Stand Alone option are approximately 43,000 higher than the Integrated service and are directly related to the increase in staffing required. 7
In summary the Integrated Service Proposal received from the OPP would be the most cost effective and save the municipality significant dollars. The savings in 2013 would pay for 50% of the startup and disbandment costs. The savings from 2014 and beyond should be sufficient to cover the debenture payments for the construction of a new policing facility; should council decide to maintain the existing police force, the debenture payments would be in addition to the police service budget that has been presented and would have to be funded from taxation. 8
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