How will John Tory impose scrutiny on the number of officers making Sunshine list.

[boodog]

Half of Toronto Police made the Sunshine List

The civilian agency that keeps watch over Toronto's police service wants answers.

The city's Police Services Board has asked the Chief of Police to explain why so many officers made the 2014 Sunshine List; a comprehensive look at the people in the public sector that earned more than $100,000.

Roughly half of the officers in Toronto - 4,100 of about 8,000 members - made the list and 544 of them were put there because for the first time, compensation for so-called 'paid duty' shifts was included.

Currently, officers are paid $68 dollars per hour while doing off duty work and they must be hired for a minimum of three hours.

The board said in a statement, "There are number of Toronto Police Service employees who earned more than 50% of their base salary income in overtime, etc. It is hoped that the report requested from the Chief will provide an objective explanation for this phenomenon."

There are extreme cases to be found right at the top.

For example, a constable named Virani Abdulhameed brings in more than $240,000 per year, before tax.

The only cop who makes more is Police Chief Bill Blair.

Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack feels the Sunshine List is out-of-dating, insisting that the $100,000 threshold was set 20 years ago.

He says with inflation, a more fair benchmark would be around $140,000.

McCormack is also quick to point out that most - about 80 percent, according to the union head- of paid duty work is not funded by tax dollars.

The Sunshine List is published in this province each year.

John Tory says he agrees with reviewing paid duty work.

"I think it's something that bears considerable, additional scrutiny as we try to control policing costs and control all costs in the city," Tory said during a press conference Monday afternoon.

- See more at: http://www.newstalk1010.com/news/20...e-made-the-sunshine-list#sthash.sUwVHrQJ.dpuf

 

[Butler1000]

Good question. But as the vast majority was paid out by people other than the city this is a bit of a low priority.

I think that they can remove some of them from city construction areas. There was talk of this already. Beyond that I suppose they can start charging parades for the use of police. And other gigs like runs if they get free services as well.

Anyone have a list of events where the city foots the bill?

 

[boodog]

Good question. But as the vast majority was paid out by people other than the city this is a bit of a low priority.

Political pandering.

I think that they can remove some of them from city construction areas. There was talk of this already.

Does John Tory's Police Service Board have the will power to go against the powerful and John Tory-friendly police union?

Beyond that I suppose they can start charging parades for the use of police. And other gigs like runs if they get free services as well.

Anyone have a list of events where the city foots the bill?

Top on the list: all John Tory photo op for political pandering.

 

[fuji]

Rob Ford paid the unions off with exorbitant contracts, his reckless overspending products this. Thank God the Fords lost the election!

What is even worse is the TTC contact Ford stuck us with.

 

[boodog]

Rob Ford paid the unions off with exorbitant contracts, his reckless overspending products this. Thank God the Fords lost the election!

What is even worse is the TTC contact Ford stuck us with.

Does that include Rob Ford's TTC going against the union and contracted out the bus cleaning?

 

[Anbarandy]

Rob Ford paid the unions off with exorbitant contracts, his reckless overspending products this. Thank God the Fords lost the election!

What is even worse is the TTC contact Ford stuck us with.

John Tory's presence on police board fans the fire

Personal ties, a tangle of old resentments and the contentious carding issue make an incendiary mix as the city awaits a new chief.


Mayor John Tory listened to critics and removed Councillor Michael Thompson from the police services board, while putting himself on it. Chief Bill Blair is a personal friend.

By: Royson James Toronto Politics, Published on Mon Mar 16 2015 Toronto Star



John Tory fancies himself a master at putting out fires and lowering the temperature on combustible conflicts. Why, then, does his presence on the Toronto Police Services Board ignite such skepticism and anguish among those seeking police reforms?

Tory is viewed as too close to outgoing Chief Bill Blair; too accommodating of Mike McCormack and the police union; too conflicted in making his buddy Andy Pringle the vice chair of the board; too hamstrung on the contentious carding file; and too in danger of becoming public enemy number one on his choice of the new chief.

That’s what you get for sticking your finger in too many pies, especially when you are the new chef in town and already have numerous buns burning in the oven, and pots boiling all over town.

Since his election, Tory fired Councillor Michael Thompson (open Michael Thompson's policard), the lone black member of the board. It was Thompson who frequently pushed Blair to contain runaway policing costs. He butted heads with the police brass over its controversial carding practices that seem to target black citizens. And he was seen by the police association as a main obstacle to landing a fat new contract in negotiations this spring and summer.

Thompson immediately put a target on his back five or six years ago, when he insisted on not extending the contracts of Deputies Tony Warr and Kim Derry.

Since then, a faction in the force has sought to rid policing of Thompson. They nurtured the sentiment that Thompson had designs on landing Deputy Chief Peter Sloly in the chief’s chair.

When the police board refused to extend Blair’s contract beyond the current 10 years — he retires next month — and a new mayor arrived, the aggrieved insisted that Tory remove Thompson from the board. Tory capitulated. Thompson left, but only after considerable backroom political muscle read him the tea leaves.

Tory didn’t stop there. He took his designated spot on the board, rather than let a city councillor hold it. It was a curious move, considering Tory was new to city hall and had a steep learning curve and a massive workload of exploding files — from congestion to infrastructure cost over-runs to housing to taxes and transit building.

Everyone knew the police file was rife with potential conflicts for the mayor. He and Blair are friends. (Even as the police board rejected Blair’s advances, Tory the mayoral candidate was advocating his contract extension.)

He and Pringle are ancient allies and confreres. Tory’s new staff admitted back in December that the mayor would have difficulty supporting the reappointment of Pringle to the board. Yet, Pringle remains as the city’s appointee.

Pringle’s term expired last November. Not only is he still there; he’s been appointed vice-chair. The rules allow him to stay until his successor is appointed. For some reason, the city has not appointed a successor.

Was Pringle being fingered to assume the board chair position — a full-time gig that pays more than $100,000 — when Alok Mukherjee leaves in a year?

Tory seemed poised to sideline Mukherjee in December, after the police association complained about Mukherjee’s Facebook postings and demanded he be removed for his strong statement against the police practice of carding. Mukherjee survived, but barely.

He’s still there, but doesn’t seem in control of the board’s agenda. New board reps are doing the heavy work in contract negotiations. The hard line taken by Thompson and Mukherjee is a thing of the past.

The biggest indication that Tory has set aside the normal police board procedures is carding. For years, the board inched towards its current position that demands the chief reform the practice. No longer should police routinely stop citizens, for no apparent reason, and record personal information in a database.

First, inform citizens of their rights to not stay and answer such questions, if they are not being investigated or arrested. And implement a procedure where police must record the purpose of the stop and give the citizen a record of the same.

Chief Blair stalled, fussed, didn’t comply, came up with unsatisfactory solutions. By the time Tory joined the board, he himself slammed carding. But Blair has still not complied. Instead of a showdown, Tory brought in a mediator.

With Mukherjee away in India, a police source suggests that an idea was hatched by police brass vacationing in Florida that retired judge Warren Winkler mediate the dispute.

Few realized the board directive was a negotiating point.

The message is, the chief, not the police board, is the employer. If the police association and a faction of the police force don’t like board directives or reforms, they can slow play. And kill it.

Finally, a month away from Chief Blair’s departure, the new chief has not been chosen.

Tory’s arrival has slowed the process well underway for close to a year. Now, the rumours persist that there is a backdoor campaign designed to kneecap Sloly, charged with the police reforms, and kill his chances of becoming chief.

Tory says he has not made up his mind on who should replace Blair. If he hasn’t, in my view that’s because the anti-Sloly campaign has his ear.

Tory listens at his peril.


As if Tory is any better than RoFo.

TPS > Tory's Police Service

 

[boodog]

John Tory's presence on police board fans the fire

Personal ties, a tangle of old resentments and the contentious carding issue make an incendiary mix as the city awaits a new chief.


Mayor John Tory listened to critics and removed Councillor Michael Thompson from the police services board, while putting himself on it. Chief Bill Blair is a personal friend.

By: Royson James Toronto Politics, Published on Mon Mar 16 2015 Toronto Star



John Tory fancies himself a master at putting out fires and lowering the temperature on combustible conflicts. Why, then, does his presence on the Toronto Police Services Board ignite such skepticism and anguish among those seeking police reforms?

Tory is viewed as too close to outgoing Chief Bill Blair; too accommodating of Mike McCormack and the police union; too conflicted in making his buddy Andy Pringle the vice chair of the board; too hamstrung on the contentious carding file; and too in danger of becoming public enemy number one on his choice of the new chief.

That’s what you get for sticking your finger in too many pies, especially when you are the new chef in town and already have numerous buns burning in the oven, and pots boiling all over town.

Since his election, Tory fired Councillor Michael Thompson (open Michael Thompson's policard), the lone black member of the board. It was Thompson who frequently pushed Blair to contain runaway policing costs. He butted heads with the police brass over its controversial carding practices that seem to target black citizens. And he was seen by the police association as a main obstacle to landing a fat new contract in negotiations this spring and summer.

Thompson immediately put a target on his back five or six years ago, when he insisted on not extending the contracts of Deputies Tony Warr and Kim Derry.

Since then, a faction in the force has sought to rid policing of Thompson. They nurtured the sentiment that Thompson had designs on landing Deputy Chief Peter Sloly in the chief’s chair.

When the police board refused to extend Blair’s contract beyond the current 10 years — he retires next month — and a new mayor arrived, the aggrieved insisted that Tory remove Thompson from the board. Tory capitulated. Thompson left, but only after considerable backroom political muscle read him the tea leaves.

Tory didn’t stop there. He took his designated spot on the board, rather than let a city councillor hold it. It was a curious move, considering Tory was new to city hall and had a steep learning curve and a massive workload of exploding files — from congestion to infrastructure cost over-runs to housing to taxes and transit building.

Everyone knew the police file was rife with potential conflicts for the mayor. He and Blair are friends. (Even as the police board rejected Blair’s advances, Tory the mayoral candidate was advocating his contract extension.)

He and Pringle are ancient allies and confreres. Tory’s new staff admitted back in December that the mayor would have difficulty supporting the reappointment of Pringle to the board. Yet, Pringle remains as the city’s appointee.

Pringle’s term expired last November. Not only is he still there; he’s been appointed vice-chair. The rules allow him to stay until his successor is appointed. For some reason, the city has not appointed a successor.

Was Pringle being fingered to assume the board chair position — a full-time gig that pays more than $100,000 — when Alok Mukherjee leaves in a year?

Tory seemed poised to sideline Mukherjee in December, after the police association complained about Mukherjee’s Facebook postings and demanded he be removed for his strong statement against the police practice of carding. Mukherjee survived, but barely.

He’s still there, but doesn’t seem in control of the board’s agenda. New board reps are doing the heavy work in contract negotiations. The hard line taken by Thompson and Mukherjee is a thing of the past.

The biggest indication that Tory has set aside the normal police board procedures is carding. For years, the board inched towards its current position that demands the chief reform the practice. No longer should police routinely stop citizens, for no apparent reason, and record personal information in a database.

First, inform citizens of their rights to not stay and answer such questions, if they are not being investigated or arrested. And implement a procedure where police must record the purpose of the stop and give the citizen a record of the same.

Chief Blair stalled, fussed, didn’t comply, came up with unsatisfactory solutions. By the time Tory joined the board, he himself slammed carding. But Blair has still not complied. Instead of a showdown, Tory brought in a mediator.

With Mukherjee away in India, a police source suggests that an idea was hatched by police brass vacationing in Florida that retired judge Warren Winkler mediate the dispute.

Few realized the board directive was a negotiating point.

The message is, the chief, not the police board, is the employer. If the police association and a faction of the police force don’t like board directives or reforms, they can slow play. And kill it.

Finally, a month away from Chief Blair’s departure, the new chief has not been chosen.

Tory’s arrival has slowed the process well underway for close to a year. Now, the rumours persist that there is a backdoor campaign designed to kneecap Sloly, charged with the police reforms, and kill his chances of becoming chief.

Tory says he has not made up his mind on who should replace Blair. If he hasn’t, in my view that’s because the anti-Sloly campaign has his ear.

Tory listens at his peril.


As if Tory is any better than RoFo.

TPS > Tory's Police Service

This post should be on a separated thread.

 

[destillat]

This post should be on a separated thread.

You should be in your own separated thread.

 

[boodog]

You should be in your own separated thread.

.......never a good sheep nor a loyal emperor minister.

 

[red]

Good question. But as the vast majority was paid out by people other than the city this is a bit of a low priority.

I think that they can remove some of them from city construction areas. There was talk of this already. Beyond that I suppose they can start charging parades for the use of police. And other gigs like runs if they get free services as well.

Anyone have a list of events where the city foots the bill?

They shouldn't be allowed to do paid duty at all. It creates a potential conflict of interest.

 

[fuji]

Does that include Rob Ford's TTC going against the union and contracted out the bus cleaning?

Trying to change the topic to wiggle off the hook??? The topic is why so many union employees are landing on the sunshine list. The answer is the contacts signed by Rob Ford.

Despite pretending to be tough on unions when he was hamming for cameras, the reality is Ford showed up to union negotiations like Santa as a Christmas party, he gave away the farm.

That is why we have so many union Sunshiners, Rob Ford reckless spending.

 

[basketcase]

They shouldn't be allowed to do paid duty at all. It creates a potential conflict of interest.

I completely disagree. I think that some of the paid duty could be done by a construction worker with a stop sign but when cops are actually needed for traffic control at an event or are hired out instead of some random security guard, better the event organizers foot the bill rather than the city.


Of course the sunshine list boundary not going up with inflation for the past 20 years makes the list less meaningful every year. 30 Years from now minimum wage earners will be on the list.

 

[destillat]

I completely disagree. I think that some of the paid duty could be done by a construction worker with a stop sign but when cops are actually needed for traffic control at an event or are hired out instead of some random security guard, better the event organizers foot the bill rather than the city.


Of course the sunshine list boundary not going up with inflation for the past 20 years makes the list less meaningful every year. 30 Years from now minimum wage earners will be on the list.

And really, if paid duty is often covered by private money, should that income really be published on the Sunshine List?
I used to work for a public organization that exposed me to being on that list... but any income I earned privately obviously wasn't counted.

 

[Butler1000]

And really, if paid duty is often covered by private money, should that income really be published on the Sunshine List?
I used to work for a public organization that exposed me to being on that list... but any income I earned privately obviously wasn't counted.

It changed because of the way it is billed. Officers used to get paid directly but now it is done via the police payroll. They add a 15% service charge so it actually brings in about 4 million a year in fees.

I read using inflation the sunshine list today should be at about 144,000.

 

[FAST]

Probably do it on "PAID" sick days.

FAST

 

[destillat]

It changed because of the way it is billed. Officers used to get paid directly but now it is done via the police payroll. They add a 15% service charge so it actually brings in about 4 million a year in fees.

I read using inflation the sunshine list today should be at about 144,000.

Still... it is not hard for the finance department to code paid duty differently and exclude it from the Sunshine List submissions.

And I agree... inflation should definitely be taken into account... if not yearly, at least every few years.

 

[KBear]

It changed because of the way it is billed. Officers used to get paid directly but now it is done via the police payroll. They add a 15% service charge so it actually brings in about 4 million a year in fees.

I read using inflation the sunshine list today should be at about 144,000.

From the OP article.
Roughly half of the officers in Toronto - 4,100 of about 8,000 members - made the list and 544 of them were put there because for the first time, compensation for so-called 'paid duty' shifts was included.

4100 - 544 = 3556 officers would have made the list without paid duty.

Is the pay for the average job in the private sector keeping up with inflation?

 

[Anynym]

Except that many parades go cap-in-hand to the city for "sponsorship", "donations" or other taxpayer money to cover those expenses, so it's still billed directly to the taxpayer. (Except for having to pay a few more accountants to handle the money)

 

[fuji]

Police should not be permitted to take paid duty assignments.

Paid duty covers two things generally:

1) Security at events -- there is really no reason why private security can't handle this. We even have armed private security in Canada.

2) Traffic duty at road construction, etc. -- we could deputize people to do this, give them the power to direct traffic, but not arrest, and allow private firms to hire them out. Parking enforcement could do it alternately.

If police want to work overtime there's lots of casework in Toronto that could use some additional police attention -- how many times do we hear people complain that the police don't have the resources to investigate burglaries, broken-into cars, purse snatches, cellphone theft, etc., the police say they don't have the resources. Well, they do have the resources -- working paid duty. Wrong priority!

 

[boodog]

Trying to change the topic to wiggle off the hook??? The topic is why so many union employees are landing on the sunshine list.

Welcome to my thread "How will John Tory impose scrutiny on the number of officers making Sunshine list." That's the thread topic.

The answer is the contacts signed by Rob Ford.

Despite pretending to be tough on unions when he was hamming for cameras, the reality is Ford showed up to union negotiations like Santa as a Christmas party, he gave away the farm.

That is why we have so many union Sunshiners, Rob Ford reckless spending.

I disagree.

Without Rob Ford mayoral leadership and the vocal opposition of Michael Thompson (sp?) and other fiscal conservative council representatives on the Police board (since we are on the thread topic reagarding the police officers' income) reeling back in the potential big raise, would have been given by mediators after the huge raise was given to OPP, the Toronto Police would have even a bigger raise. Hence they hated the gut of Rob Ford and Michael Thompson and worked their hardest to remove those opposition leadership. Please re-read the post #6 in this thread.

TTC? You are joking, right? Under the fiscal responsible leadership of Rob Ford TTC was designated as "Essential Service" and the union got their right to strike removed. And again under the leadership of Rob Ford TTC management went against the union and contracted out the bus cleaning lowering the hourly rate from $26 to $18.

Who else, in your mind, Rob Ford is responsible "so many union Sunshiners"?