Attempt to push mayor onto Toronto Police Service Board handcuffed by City Council
· Toronto Sun
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A leading mayoral candidate’s attempt to push the next mayor of Toronto into a seat on the police board has effectively been derailed.
Brad Bradford, the councillor for Beaches-East York, had drafted a proposal that would either see Toronto’s mayor sit on the police board this fall, or, should he or she decline, explain to City Council in writing why that job has been delegated.
But Bradford would’ve needed a two-thirds majority at council to make that happen. At Thursday’s City Council meeting, he fell far short of that mark, as a vote on the idea lost 7-18 .
That vote would’ve allowed council to rule on the proposal directly, but it was instead handed over to City Hall’s next executive committee. As that powerful body will be closely aligned with Toronto’s next mayor, the point is effectively moot.
Bradford, who polls say is one of the front-runners in Toronto’s mayoral race, no doubt hopes to claim a chair at the Toronto Police Service board after October’s election.
He, as well as councillors Vincent Crisanti, Stephen Holyday, Josh Matlow, Frances Nunziata, James Pasternak and Anthony Perruzza, had voted to waive the stipulated referral to the executive committee. Mike Colle was absent.
“At a time when public safety is top of mind for so many people,” Bradford said in a statement to the Toronto Sun , “the mayor should be personally serving on the Toronto Police Service board, not choosing to delegate that responsibility to someone else.”
Mayor Olivia Chow has not served on the TPS board
Incumbent Olivia Chow has not served on the TPS board during her term as mayor. Her predecessor, John Tory, had a seat from 2014 to 2022, and post-amalgamation Toronto mayors David Miller and Mel Lastman also sat on the board.
Chow’s office ignored an earlier request for comment from the Sun about Bradford’s proposal.
The concept won letters of support from at least two candidates for council: Karina Lemke, running in Ward 11, and Daniel Tate, of Ward 13.
“The mayor’s presence on the Toronto Police Service board would reinforce that community safety is a core priority of city leadership and that accountability for policing and public safety cannot be delegated,” Lemke wrote in her letter , addressed to Toronto City Council.
“It would send a strong message that the concerns of all Torontonians are being heard and addressed at the highest level.”
The municipal election is Oct. 26.