Lots of diversity among police board appointees

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This article was published 19/01/2013 (4624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The members of the city’s new police board have been revealed and it’s a diverse group.

The seven-member board includes two women and representation from the city’s aboriginal and immigrant communities.

“We have representatives from both genders and from the aboriginal community … so hopefully it will be a good mix,” noted deputy city clerk Heather Ewasiuk, the board’s acting secretary.

City council is expected to approve the members at the next regular council meeting on Monday.

Under the province’s Police Services Act, every Manitoba municipality that runs a police service must now have a police board. The intent is to improve transparency and accountability, as the Brandon Police Service is to run under the general direction and supervision of the board.

The board, however, cannot interfere in the day-to-day operations of the force.

Initially, members of the Brandon board were to be approved by council on Dec. 10, but the time to get required background checks pushed that date back.

Ewasiuk said those checks have now been done and council is expected to officially approve members at its meeting on Monday.

The city representatives on Brandon’s board will be Mayor Shari Decter Hirst, city manager Scott Hildebrand and Coun. Jim McCrae (Meadows).

McCrae, a former Manitoba attorney general, was selected by fellow councillors after he initially criticized the board as unnecessary.

Despite that, McCrae said he’s now focused on helping to provide the best police service possible.

“Any criticism I had respecting setting up these police boards across the province is a debate that is over,” McCrae said during an interview on Friday.

McCrae said that part of his job will be to keep an eye on expenses for taxpayers.

“That’s not my No. 1 priority or job on the police board, but it is a very, very important one,” McCrae said.

He praised the service provided by the BPS, but said he’s concerned about costs.

McCrae said he was one of two councillors who moved to reduce the size of a proposed increase to protective services during the recent city budget debate.

Wage increases for police and fire personnel has outstripped city employees, he said.

Making sure the BPS reflects the city’s changing demographics is also important, he said.

The three citizen representatives will be Lorraine Pompana, Mark Frison and John Schneiderbanger.

Pompana is former Brandon University co-ordinator of indigenous services and a former member of the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples’ Council.

Frison is president of Assiniboine Community College, and Schneiderbanger is a former CFB Shilo base commander.

Frison has had previous experience serving on a number of boards and served on some as they were first starting out. He hopes that experience will prove useful with this new board.

“I wanted to get involved here in the city and make a contribution so I saw that as an opportunity, and it was certainly an area that was of interest, but I don’t really come in with a lot of pre-conceived notions,” Frison said.

The board is completed by provincial appointee Jaime Chinchilla, a cultural and diversity facilitator for Westman Immigrant Services.

Chinchilla is originally from Costa Rica and has lived in Brandon for seven years. He said he’s hoping to bring cultural awareness to the police board.

He has worked as a Spanish interpreter for the BPS and witnessed the challenges of serving a city that has become culturally diverse through immigration.

“That made me be able to be really close to some of the issues that the police had with dealing with these new communities,” Chinchilla said.

Members have yet to be trained and there’s no date yet for the board’s first meeting. It’s required to sit at least once every three months.

The city may pay citizen employees, but that hasn’t been finalized.

Ewasiuk added it’s still not clear who will pay board expenses — the city, province or a combination of both.

» ihitchen@brandonsun.com