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Police expenditures called into question


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#21 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 16 October 2007 - 08:18 PM

The rest of the article talks about how Battershill's lawyers want more info. For God's sake, this is silly. If someone won't speak to their emploiyer except through a lawyer, the relationship is shot. Now it is just about talking about severance terms.
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#22 spanky123

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Posted 18 October 2007 - 09:27 PM

So who has the dirt?

#23 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 18 October 2007 - 09:30 PM

There was an article in today's paper about this, but no new information really. Battershill doesn't want to talk to the board directly, is still mulling over talking through his lawyers, etc etc., and the break-in was allegedly unrelated. Saanich police put out something about looking for a blonde guy... Meh.
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#24 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 24 October 2007 - 07:13 AM

Louise Dickson follows up with an article in today's paper. She writes that David Mulroney claims that his FOI request can't have had anything to do with the police board's decision to put Battershill on administrative leave. She also writes that speculation (unconfirmed by Mulroney) around who the mystery client on whose behalf Mulroney requested the information points to "local developer Gerald Hartwig ... who has many friends in the police department, [and who] has refused to confirm or deny his involvement in the three requests."

See [url=http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=097935a9-f696-4c8d-9733-c6e9bbd434f5:b68e2]Chief's leave, FOI requests not linked -- Lawyer of client who made request says information has nothing to do with board's decision[/url:b68e2] for the article.

So if the two events (FOI request & police board decision to put Battershill on admin leave) aren't linked, what triggered the police board's decision?

And was the break-in at the lawyers really just a coincidence, as suggested by Saanich police?
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#25 spanky123

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Posted 24 October 2007 - 03:14 PM

And was the break-in at the lawyers really just a coincidence, as suggested by Saanich police?


I think that good old Mr. Hartwig has found out that even though the Chief wasn't the most popular guy in the station, cops don't like outsiders trying to air their laundry for them. I imagine a few days of having a few cops monitoring his every move looking for an invalid lane change or jay walk finally got to him and this is his attempt at trying to distance himself.

#26 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 26 October 2007 - 10:23 PM

From today's (tonight's?) T-C, a follow-up by Louise Dickson, with more info:

[url=http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=ad052e82-75b4-486d-8688-f89ffd60f4b1&k=11210:3631a]RCMP called in to investigate police chief[/url:3631a]
Battershill has been on leave since Oct. 11 over allegations of misconduct
Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
Published: Friday, October 26, 2007

B.C.'s police watchdog has ordered an investigation into allegations of misconduct against Victoria police Chief Paul Battershill, who has been on administrative leave since Oct. 11.

Police Complaint Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld issued a press release Friday saying RCMP in Vancouver will conduct an external Police Act investigation into unspecified allegations. Reached by phone, Ryneveld refused to comment publicly.

A news release said the office wouldn't comment further to "preserve the integrity of the investigation," adding the RCMP and Victoria's mayor, police board and police department had also been asked to refrain from comment.

Battershill, who has been police chief since 1999, has been instructed by his lawyers not to talk to the press. On Oct. 22, he and wife Brenda put their new James Bay home on the market. The house is listed with Taddy Owen-Flood Realtors for $795,000.

Mayor Alan Lowe, who is chairman of the police board, is on business in Thailand. He has refused to say why the chief is on administrative leave with pay, other than to say it has to do with a "personnel issue."

Esquimalt Mayor Chris Clement, the board's vice-chairman, said it's up to the police board to decide if Battershill will remain on administrative leave or be suspended. "I suspect the decision will be made after Alan [Lowe] gets back on Nov. 3," said Clement.

Police Act investigations are not criminal, but involve violations of public trust. Under the B.C. Police Act code-of-professional-conduct regulations, these violations include abuse of authority, discreditable conduct, neglect of duty, deceit, corrupt practice and improper disclosure of information.

The investigation must be done by an officer of similar rank to chief. In the case of the RCMP, that could be a superintendent or a chief superintendent.

According to the act, the chairman of the police board is the discipline authority for a police chief. After the investigation, Lowe will have to decide whether the allegations are substantiated.

Meanwhile, Victoria lawyer David Mulroney has received a "generous" three-inch stack of responses to three Freedom of Information requests he filed with Victoria police in September, in which he was seeking documents related to employee dismissals and suspensions, the chief's expense accounts and employment contracts.

Mulroney's FOI requests had previously been challeged by law firm Heenan Blaikie on behalf of Battershill. A letter that Mulroney wrote in response to that challenge seems to have been the catalyst for an emergency police board meeting on Oct. 10, during which top police officials were called to answer questions. By the next morning, the chief was on administrative leave.

Mulroney said the stack of documents he received doesn't include information on employees dismissed without cause and the amounts of their severance packages, noting that because they involve other people, the requests "will be delayed until December."


Mulroney also wants more information on the chief's legal bills when he acted as discipline authority in the West Vancouver police investigation surrounding Const. Lisa Alford, who pleaded guilty to drunk driving last year.

Yesterday, he glanced over expense accounts of $40,000 for a Taser report prepared by Victoria police for Ryneveld's office, which he said did not include staff and officers' labour.

"It's obviously a horrendous cost involved," he said.

Mulroney filed the FOI requests on behalf of a client - whom sources have identified as local developer Gerald Hartwig - who wanted to see if the city could afford more police patrols downtown.

ldickson@tc.canwest.com
© Times Colonist 2007


I bolded the bits that struck me as giving specific information (it seems like such a tangled skein of wool -- a yarn?) and the name Ryneveld in purple b/c when it came up toward the end of the articleI had to reread it to realize that it's the same guy who's calling in the RCMP. So his office paid $40K (not including staff or officers' time) for a report prepared by Victoria police. Geez, do reports really have to cost that much money?
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#27 spanky123

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Posted 27 October 2007 - 09:32 AM

My favorite bit is the part about Hartwig being concerned about being able to hire more police officers! Piling on a million dollars in severance to the chief, legal and investigation expenses is going to help the matter eh Gerald!

Hartwig must really be squirming.

We all know what is going to happen. The chief will resign yet be paid a very large yet undiclosed severance package. Since he will no longer be the chief the details of the investigation will remain sealed and we will all be assured that this was only ever a personnel matter and had nothing to do with policing.

#28 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 27 October 2007 - 10:59 AM

My favorite bit is the part about Hartwig being concerned about being able to hire more police officers! Piling on a million dollars in severance to the chief, legal and investigation expenses is going to help the matter eh Gerald!

Hartwig must really be squirming.

We all know what is going to happen. The chief will resign yet be paid a very large yet undiclosed severance package. Since he will no longer be the chief the details of the investigation will remain sealed and we will all be assured that this was only ever a personnel matter and had nothing to do with policing.


I think you are right. I can't see him ever coming back.
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#29 Mike K.

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Posted 27 October 2007 - 12:19 PM

Not when his house is on the market...

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#30 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 27 October 2007 - 09:43 PM

...details of the investigation will remain sealed and we will all be assured that this was only ever a personnel matter and had nothing to do with policing.


If we had a municipal leadership with any modicum of self-respect and sense of civic responsibility, that wouldn't happen. If it does happen, then we don't have that leadership. We instead have a real democracy deficit in Victoria/ Canada. If we have a democracy deficit, we allow cynicism to poison the well, we allow wacko conspiracy theories to run rampant, and we lose the teeny tiny bit of competitive edge we still have left (I'm thinking in terms of Canada's position globally, which already has some dings & scratches due to corruption issues), because we allow corruption -- or the appearance thereof (same thing) -- to fester. Real transparency is the only way forward. You can't expect people to do their best if they actually believe that in reality it's all a rigged game from the get-go. And yah, all you cynics out there: spare me the riposte about how it really is a dark dark world, and everyone is just waiting to screw their fellow man. If you really believe that, why bother living in a city -- why don't you live in the woods as a hermit? That's what I'm asking for: that we behave like we live in a city, and not in some frontier camp where nothing matters. I'm not saying that people shouldn't scheme, shouldn't be competitive, shouldn't try to beat the next guy, and that we should all "play nice." But we have to have transparency, and you don't pick and choose the rules you like only to ignore the ones you don't. If you did that at poker, you'd be run out of town.
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#31 Caramia

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Posted 27 October 2007 - 10:48 PM

I wonder how many of our workplaces would survive that kind of scrutiny? You can always find something inappropriate. That doesn't mean everyone is evil or that there was a conspiracy. This might still be much ado about nothing.
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

#32 spanky123

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Posted 28 October 2007 - 07:36 AM

I wonder how many of our workplaces would survive that kind of scrutiny? You can always find something inappropriate. That doesn't mean everyone is evil or that there was a conspiracy. This might still be much ado about nothing.


May very well be nothing. Remember though that the Police Board has had a good look at this and brought in the RCMP to investigate. That could either mean that there is a conflict within the Police Board and/or there really is something to be concerned about. Apparently the chief isn't waiting around. His house is listed for sale and I expect he will have left Dodge before anything is known anyways.

#33 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 28 October 2007 - 09:47 AM

I wonder how many of our workplaces would survive that kind of scrutiny? You can always find something inappropriate.


In countries like Sweden, workplaces & governments "survive" scrutiny very well because the culture abhors corruption. In Canada, on the other hand, corruption -- whether it's a bit of stealing from the employer or hands-in-the-till by management -- is becoming too accepted, as though it were somehow natural and impossible to counter. Regardless of what's going on in the Victoria Police Department, even the perception of corruption is damaging, and if there's nothing to be concerned about, prove it by showing us. And if there is something to be concerned about, shine a light on it, and show us how it'll get cleaned up. Otherwise people come to expect it, and then it's just endemic. Further to that, the police department isn't just any workplace --it's a very specific, special kind that's supposed to serve the public good. If there's funny stuff going on at the local Staples office supply store, that's Staples' problem first, and then it becomes a problem of the economy in more general terms (which in turn makes it our problem). If there's any kind of funny stuff at the police or the RCMP, it's our problem immediately. The people we elected to office should understand that, too.
When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

#34 spanky123

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Posted 28 October 2007 - 10:17 AM

Very good points Ms. B.

In the absence of fact comes speculation and by nature many people assume the worst. The mayor and the rest of the Police Board need to come clean sooner rather than later.

On the larger issue of society and corruption I think that the answer really relates to how we value ourselves and others. We have gone beyond keeping up to the Jones' to keeping up to the Jones' at all costs. I was at a party a few nights ago and someone pulled up in a new Porche 911 Turbo. The comment immediately went to "how did he afford that" with the implied speculation of course that he did something wrong in order to be able to afford to purchase the vehicle. The next step then is the relationalization that if he cheated or stole in order to buy his car then it must be ok for me to do it as well.

#35 Caramia

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Posted 29 October 2007 - 07:42 AM

I don't mean to in any way imply that I support covering over any corrupt behaviour. If there was something shocking, then it should be investigated and the public informed. And had it come out any other way, I would assume that there was something shocking there. But because it came out this way - after the guy's files had been combed over by a hostile mud-digger, I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes things that appear inappropriate on paper seem totally appropriate in context... particularly violations of Political Correctness, and other such human foibles. The police department already has a lot of checks and balances, and a trademark of this chief was added accountability. Whatever it was, slipped past the normal watchdog policies and audits and was only revealed for someone looking for dirt.

I'm definitely interested to see what it was, either way.
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
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#36 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 29 October 2007 - 09:14 PM

Police chief's credit card bill tops $91,000 since '04
Battershill dined out with officers regularly, documents released by police department show
Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Victoria police Chief Paul Battershill's credit card transactions since Jan. 1, 2004, total more than $91,000 on restaurants, hotels, travel, even Kleenex, documents released yesterday show.

The figures were made public by the Victoria police in response to Freedom of Information requests by lawyer David Mulroney, acting for an unnamed client. They don't show any obvious link to allegations of misconduct against Battershill, who is being investigated by the RCMP at the request of Police Complaint Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld. Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe has described the allegations as a "personnel issue."

Battershill's credit card expenses total $15,813 in 2004; $26,389 in 2005; $29,260 in 2006 and $18,800 from Jan. 1 until Sept. 12, 2007, according to the documents released Monday.


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Victoria police Chief Paul Battershill has been on administrative leave since Oct. 11.
Nic Hume, Times Colonist

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Font:****Once some of the credit charges were assigned to other accounts and personal transactions were reimbursed by Battershill, his employment-related expenses for that period total $59,385: $11,748 in 2004, $18,000 in 2005 and $20,637 for 2006, according to the Public Bodies Information report released Monday. The incomplete expenses for 2007 are close to $9,000.

In the FOI requests, Mulroney had asked for information on such matters as the chief's expenses, severance payments and the cost of external investigations. Costs related to the latter were released yesterday, but Victoria police said information about severance payments couldn't be released without the consent of the people involved. More information could be available by mid-December.

Mulroney's FOI requests had previously been challenged by law firm Heenan Blaikie on behalf of Battershill. A letter that Mulroney wrote in response to that challenge seems to have been the catalyst for an emergency Victoria police board meeting on Oct. 10, during which top police officials were called to answer questions. By the next morning, Battershill had been placed on administrative leave by the police board.

Battershill is also the subject of the Police Act investigation ordered by Ryneveld. Police Act investigations are not criminal, but involve violations of public trust. Under the B.C. Police Act code-of-professional-conduct regulations, these violations include abuse of authority, discreditable conduct, neglect of duty, deceit, corrupt practice and improper disclosure of information.

Some of the expenses revealed Monday relate to work Battershill was asked to do by Ryneveld. Close to $3,000 is related to his investigation of Const. Lisa Alford of the West Vancouver Police Department, which will be reimbursed by that department. Other expenses relate to Battershill's involvement in the Victoria Police Department's review of the Taser. Of the $40,000 in expenses, $16,000 has been reimbursed by the province.

The documents show Battershill regularly conducted business meetings with Victoria police officers over meals and used the credit card to pay for those meals. The chief sometimes had two meals in different Victoria restaurants for himself and for his guests in the same day.

His guests also included Lowe, chairman of the police board, and members of the police board, who approved his expenses.

Often his guests included senior officers from the department, but he picked up the tab for a number of rank and file officers. Group meetings were held at Fifth Street Bar and Grill, the Malahat Mountain Inn and Swans.

The documents also show travel on B.C. Ferries, trips to business conferences, stays at hotels and incidental purchases.

In 2005, the last time other police forces were included in Public Bodies Information reports, Saanich police Chief Derek Egan's expenses totalled $11,769. Retired Oak Bay police chief Ben Andersen's expenses were $7,487. That year, Battershill's expenses totalled $18,000.

Victoria police financial controller Scott Sievewright wasn't available for comment and couldn't outline the expense policy for police officers, who are employed by the police board. However, Insp. Cory Bond, who was at the meeting Monday when the documents were released, said the department's expense policy is similar to the City of Victoria's policy.

Mike McCliggott, Victoria's assistant city manager, said under the city's policy, it would be an exception to reimburse elected officials and employees for dining-out expenditures unless they are travelling out of town on city business.

However, it is recognized that elected officials and certain employees, as representatives of the City of Victoria, will occasionally be expected or required to expense dining out as part of their official duties and functions.

Battershill has been chief since June 1, 1999. His salary is $147,000. He receives a bi-weekly car allowance of $300. His gas, car insurance and maintenance on his vehicle are paid by the taxpayers of Victoria. The city also pays for his membership in professional associations. In 2006, he also spent six months as acting city manager.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#37 Holden West

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Posted 30 October 2007 - 04:22 AM

There are multiple items in today's T/C about the case and after reading them I'd like to play devil's advocate and throw out a possible hypothetical:

It seems that Battershill is a big city-quality cop working for a small city (small city pay for dealing with big city problems). He was trusted as City manager for a time as credible rumours pegged him for top cop jobs in Edmonton, Vancouver and even in politics with the NDP. How do you hang on to a big city talent with only a small city salary? Maybe a generous expense account that isn't scrutinized too closely would be incentive to stick around. I bet this happens a lot in the business sector.
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#38 spanky123

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Posted 30 October 2007 - 05:17 AM

There are multiple items in today's T/C about the case and after reading them I'd like to play devil's advocate and throw out a possible hypothetical:

It seems that Battershill is a big city-quality cop working for a small city (small city pay for dealing with big city problems). He was trusted as City manager for a time as credible rumours pegged him for top cop jobs in Edmonton, Vancouver and even in politics with the NDP. How do you hang on to a big city talent with only a small city salary? Maybe a generous expense account that isn't scrutinized too closely would be incentive to stick around. I bet this happens a lot in the business sector.


The comparable in the business sector is a public company (ie spending other people's money). This type of arrangement would be frowned upon not only because of the generosity and obvious lack of controls, but also because it would expose the company to potential CRA review over the allocation of expenses.

Besides, the guy is the top cop in the city and I would expect that his conduct would be beyond question. From the receipts posted it looks like the chief was abusing the privledge of his expense account. On several days he filled up 2x with gas in Victoria. How many cars are we covering for him? It also appears that every time he had a local lunch or dinner with co-workers or others it was simply charged off to the city.

The larger question of course is how many public servants do we have acting exactly the same way? When you consider that there are up to 13x every position amoungst all of the municipalities we have yet again another good reason for consolidation.

In the big picture however this would not have been the reason why the police board put the chief on leave. More shoes to drop.

#39 G-Man

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Posted 30 October 2007 - 06:35 AM

Please spending on meals, companies do this all the time. Governments do this all the time. So long as your not going out buying 100 plate dinners it is alright. That is the point of having these cards so that small one time items can be bought at the discretion of the holder. YOu guys can't possibly tell me that none of your bosses ever bought you pizza at work or whatever. I 'll bet a dollar it went the company card. Consider staff morale boosting or whatever it happens and I personally see little wrong with it.

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#40 Holden West

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Posted 30 October 2007 - 10:39 AM

I'm hearing you, G-Man. Although I can't help but note that one of those meals cost more than my entire year's property tax bill.
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