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During a closed-door police services board meeting for the annual performance review of Police Chief Murray Rodd, Rodd raises the topic of hiring a civilian full time for media relations. Board agrees it would be an asset for the service, Ontario Civilian Police Commission states, and Bennett didn't oppose the suggestion.
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“We’ve been requested to bolster the force to assist with all these heinous crimes going on in the city and here we are hiring a communications officer or a communications person. If that doesn’t send a message to the city, I don’t know what will,” Bennett said.
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Mayor Daryl Bennett receives an email from Brent Whetung who complains about a comment Police Chief Murray Rodd made to a reporter. Rodd said that police are facing real bullets, they don't need politicians shooting arrows at them.
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Chief Murray Rodd professes to need more money to solve crime, but "instead of that, they put their money into spinning it and that offends me," Bennett says, referring to the hiring of a media relations coordinator.
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Bennett responds to the email, which was sent to his City Hall email address. He tells Whetung that he should contact the police chief or the police services board because city council doesn't have authority over the actions of the chief. Bennett copies the email to other council members.
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Bennett has his secretary forward the complaint to the police services board secretary.
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Mayor Daryl Bennett asks Ken Armstrong, who was a board member at the time, to present Police Chief Murray Rodd with an offer of a 4% increase for the 2012 police service budget. In early 2012, Armstrong tells Rodd that the mayor said he will ask the OPP for a cost estimate for it to provide policing for Peterborough if city police service doesn't accept the 4% increase.
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Referring to the budget debate, Bennett says: "I accept that the police services board and the chief will argue their case. This is something they should do. But I would caution that the manner in which the case is put is as important as the substance of the case itself. And I would caution further that we are not well served by a case that crosses the line between advocacy and fear mongering."
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At a police services board meeting, Mayor Daryl Bennett table a motion to not reappoint Nancy Martin, who is the board chairwoman at the time. Board rejects the motion.
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A day after losing a vote at the police services board meeting, Bennett sends a letter on city letterhead to the minister of Community Safety and Correctional Servies advocating that Nancy Martin not be reappointed for another term on the board.
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Mayor Daryl Bennett and councillors didn't inform the police services board that they weren't showing up for the information sharing meeting. "It was not up to council to cancel the meeting, as it was a joint committee," the Commission states in its outline of allegations.
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Mayor Daryl Bennett sends a letter to the minister alleging board chairwoman Nancy Martin had committed misconduct. He didn't indicate in the letter that he was expressing a personal opinion.
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Police services board secretary sends Mayor Daryl Bennett an email informing him of the date of an upcoming "special in-camera" board meeting that he's not allowed to attend. Email includes a confidentiality clause stating the email is not to be distributed, copied or disclosed to anyone other than the person named above.
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Police services board secretary responds to an email from Mayor Daryl Bennett, stating that the board was seeking legal advice before responding to his request for the agenda and information that would be considered at the upcoming secret board meeting that he wouldn't be allowed to attend. Bennett sends a copy of the email to all council members.
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Bennett issues a press release about the investigation. He criticizes the Commission for a lack fo disclosure and lack of fairness in the process. "I remain dismayed by the heavy handed, arbitrary and secretative manner adopted by the police services board in dealing with those who find honourable disagreement with it," he states in the release.
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Mayor Daryl Bennett refuses to make himself available to be interviewed for the investigation, despite numerous requests from Commission investigators bewteen Sept. 20 and Dec. 10.
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"It's just a farce, to be very, very clear. The process that is used is anti-democratic, it is anti-everything that I was brought up to believe in, quite frankly... It's just not in keeping with fair play," he says of the Commission investigation.
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The length of time it's taking the Commission to bring the matter to any resolution is an "abuse of authority," he tells The Examiner.
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Bennett apologizes for the comment, then states: "I do not accept that my status as a member of the police services board should prohibit me from speaking on certain policing or budgetary matters as mayor. I head a council that is responsible for the expenditure of taxpayer dollars on the police service, and I take that responsibility seriously."
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Armstrong, who was the chairman at the time, announced the termination of his six-year term on the board during an unsheduled meeting at the police station. A month earlier, he had said he was going to seek another term.
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OCPC starts the meeting with a brief session to allow its lawyer to disclose information to Mayor Daryl Bennett's lawyer. They met at the Holiday Inn in Peterborough. One lawyer gave a USB thumb drive to the other lawyer and then the meeting adjourned.
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The hearing continued in Toronto with the lawyers for each side negotiating over how the case will proceed, during the roughly 75-minute session.