NORTH Vancouver residents could soon have a chance to directly address their mayors and top cop on policing matters in one sitting.
City of North Vancouver council has agreed to make changes to the terms of reference of the North Vancouver Policing Committee members to allow members of the public to speak at committee meetings, which are currently closed to the public.
The committee is made up of both North Vancouvers' mayors and chief executives, the officer in charge of the North Vancouver RCMP detachment, and two council members.
Because of the sensitive nature of their discussions, which sometimes include enforcement and investigation tactics, the meetings are held behind closed doors.
The suggested changes to the terms of reference would allow members of the public to sign up to address the committee for five-minutes periods, twice per year.
But that was not enough in the minds of some on council, including Coun. Pam Bookham who persuaded her council members to up the time to 10 minutes and allow the committee to put questions to delegates.
"That hardly seems to me sufficient time to raise and explain an issue, and I believe that we should urge that they consider something that is more flexible and accommodating," she said.
Council was agreeable to adding some vox populi to the policing committee, but Mayor Darrell Mussatto cautioned, because of the RCMP's federal mandate, there's isn't much a committee can do to influence them. "It's a very limited scope. We contract to them but they operate under federal jurisdiction, through the provincial government, so it's not like we can take a lot of issues to them," Mussatto said. "They are very reluctant to divulge much to the municipalities. We pay the bill and that's it."
The potential changes come at the request North Vancouver resident John Harvey, who has been lobbying council to redraw its policing committee along the lines of Burnaby's community committee which has upwards of 14 civilians on it.
Municipal police forces, like West Vancouver's or New Westminster's, operate under the direction of their mayor and a civilian police board, which hold open meetings.
The City and District of North Vancouver councils signed a contract extension with the RCMP last year, though the contract has a built-in escape clause allowing RCMP-contracted local governments to evaluate their RCMP service and look at setting up a local or regional force instead.
"We are really monitoring the services, and the focus is really looking at that to make sure the citizens of North Vancouver are getting the best bang for their dollar," city manager Ken Tolstam said.
Council's amended terms of reference specify that grievances with RCMP officer conduct must go straight to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP. Changes to the terms of reference will require the support of the District of North Vancouver as well as the policing committee so it may take several months to formalize the changes.
