Cobourg Mayor Sends Letter to Today’s Northumberland Making Sure Community Has All the Information

(Today’s Northumberland file photo)

Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland sent Today’s Northumberland an e-mail regarding a recent story.

“I am sending this as a response to that article to ensure that the Cobourg community is aware of ALL relevant facts and information on this topic.”

– ‘Cobourg council’s vote last week to send the Cobourg Police Services’ 2026 budget back, in hopes they could reduce that 20.5% increase, resulted in a special meeting this week of the Cobourg Police Services Board.’

Fact: Which then resulted in a vote by the Cobourg Police Service Board to send the budget right back, without even a moment’s reflection at looking at even a $1 reduction in the staggering 20.5% increase.

Fact: What was added to the agenda was the publicly available CPS estimates that were approved by the Board for submission to the mayor for consideration.  This was brought before council to ask all members of the Cobourg Council in an open and transparent forum what they would like the Mayor to do with the estimates, as I continue to prepare the 2026 budget for official submission to Council.

Fact:  As Mayor, going to council to ask their advice is exactly what all members of council, inclusive of the two members who sit on the Police Board have requested of me and not doing so in the past led to costly and time-consuming and frankly unnecessary special meetings previously.  It was also a decision by a 2/3rd majority of Council to allow the late submission of the publicly available CPS estimates.  I, as Mayor, do not have the ability to add a last-minute agenda item without a significant majority of the council supporting its inclusion.

FACT: No official request has ever come to Mayor, or to Council, to request to present the CPS budget. As Mayor, I was the one who reached out to schedule a presentation after watching the CPS Board meeting.

Fact: I raised to Council the legitimate concerns regarding the staggering 20.5% one year increase. At no point did I “Present” a CPC Budget.

– ‘In anticipation of Mayor Lucas Cleveland’s continued demand that the increase be no more than 4% under a recent Strong Mayor Powers directive, the board will also begin preparations for going to conciliation with the town.’

Fact:  Why they are pursuing conciliation as no budget has yet to be presented to council?

– ‘Ryan Bergiron, of the provincial Inspectorate of Policing, was at the meeting to confirm the repeated statements by Chief Paul VandeGraaf that the police budget is dictated by requirements set out in legislation and, as such, is not subject to controls a mayor might exercise under Strong Mayor Powers.’

Fact: Not true, the budget was approved and passed in the past by municipal councils. Under the new SMP, that has changed but as in the past, the police budget is set by elected officials based on estimates submitted by the chief to the board.   These estimates are the Chiefs and his team’s belief as to what is necessary to provide safe and adequate policing, but are not in any way the budget, as that is set by the council or in the case of SMP, the Mayor.

– ‘Board chair Adam Bureau (also a Cobourg councillor) said that council had sent the budget back “without looking at it and without even having any questions”.’

Fact: The police budget has not been presented to council. It is not to be presented to council as this is the first iteration of the Mayor’s budget.

– “Member Beatty (Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty) and I ( Bureau) did ask if they wanted a presentation first. They said no and sent it right back, so we’re here today doing this.”

Fact: It is not the job of Council to do the job of the Cobourg Police Services Board. The Board has the responsibility and are the only body that could do a line-by-line analysis of the estimates, which we all saw they did not do at either of their board meetings; it is not Council’s responsibility to make these estimates.  The Council did exactly what they are supposed to do as they would in past years without SMP, and sent the estimates back to the board whose responsibility is to decide what the actual

requirements of the CPS are and not just to mirror those of the staff and Chief.

– ‘Bergiron explained Section 50 of the Community Safety and Policing Act that requires a municipality to provide the board with sufficient funding, including required equipment and facilities.’

Fact: What is determined to be ‘sufficient funding’ isn’t what the Chief says it is. It is

what the board decides it will be. The Board and the Board alone is the one who sets

these estimates, and to date, the only one setting the estimates seemingly is the Chief and staff.

– “The municipality does not have the authority to approve or disapprove specific items contained within the budget,” Bergiron said, citing Section 50.5.

Fact: Correct, it’s the board’s work and responsibility to do that, work they have just handed over to staff and the Chief.

– ‘Section 50.6 provides two options – the board and municipality may apply to the commission to appoint a conciliation officer to resolve the matter, or the board may give the municipality written notice referring the matter to arbitration.’

Fact: This would be accurate if the budget had been presented. To date, no budget has been presented.

– In my respectful opinion, there is a third option. The third option would be, you do have the ability to go back to council without a conciliator, and you can engage in further discussions, if you believe that it’s likely to lead to a successful conclusion,” Bergiron added.’

Fact: Considering that the Chair of the Board has already suggested they file for grievance and arbitration well before the budget has even been presented, I am not sure if this third option is available as it appears the CPS Board has decided that it’s 20.5 % no matter what. Damn the public, damn the council and most certainly damn the SMP directive.

– Chief VandeGraaf said there’s no point in rediscussing or renegotiating the budget that the board approved after its own extensive process.

Fact: What was the extensive process?  To my mind, the Chief and staff requested a budget and the board accepted it with little pushback or negotiation. It’s fine that a Chief may want the sun and the moon, but it’s the board’s job to provide oversight and financial guidance. Even the Chief himself publicly continues to blame the CPS board for past poor fiscal choices leading to this. If the Chief is blaming the board for poor financial decisions, why is it falling to the taxpayer now to make up for their failures with no accountability to those who got us here?

– “Unlike years past, through Strong Mayor Powers, we’ve been purposely precluded from presenting to council as a whole, and I firmly believe that’s why we’re in this predicament today – we are here due to a budget increase amount that has been explained numerous times,” he said.

Fact: This statement is a complete falsehood.

– “The real discord here is our budget ask is more than the illegitimate directive made by the Strong Mayor Powers to the police board.”

Fact: There is nothing illegitimate about using provincially mandated process and powers to direct guidance when the board and Chief took no action to engage the Mayor in this new budget process, the first under SMP. Mayoral budgets are taking place in communities large and small across this province. A simple Google News search will confirm this. Not liking the Provincial Legislation has nothing to do with me.

Opinion : In my view this is again more about personal antipathies and political ambitions.

– This year’s 20.5% increase is up from 5% largely because of what the Chief termed, “the mistake of last year. The board made a decision to draw from reserves to artificially lower the percentage increase.”

“This year,” he continued, “I’m increasingly uncomfortable with public safety and the well-being of our membership being dragged into a political discourse.”

Fact: This is dangerous rhetoric. If mistakes have been made, then it is not up to the taxpayers to pay for this error without accountability and someone admitting the mistake.

– Recalling how the mayor presented the police budget to council last week – with no presentation, let alone any context – “it was both unfair and inappropriate. This did nothing more than to create further false narrative throughout the community.”

Fact: The Chief is the one creating a “false narrative”. I did not, nor have I ever presented any Cobourg Police Budget at any point since becoming elected Mayor.

– “You cannot say on one hand you support the Cobourg Police Service, then do an act in a manner that makes the jobs of our officers more difficult on the street, that our civilian staff worry more about job security than job performance and, most importantly, diminishes the public trust in our service.”

Fact: I personally find this comment very inflammatory and certainly inappropriate and again, nothing more than personal antipathy.

Fact: Not supporting a 20.5 % increase in a single year, when the Chief is admitting it is happening because of the errors of the Board, does not take away from the support and faith I have in the CPS as an organization. The Chief is the one who has raised to my mind serious concerns regarding the fiduciary responsibility of the CPS Board. I have said nothing in the public (until this rebuttal) that isn’t 100% supportive of the Chief and the frontline officers.

– “Remember – public safety is your essential service. It’s important to stop pointing fingers, stop blaming and recognize we have to remedy this,” said VandeGraaf.

Fact: “I would suggest the Chief take his own advice.” Again, making veiled insinuations against me personally is not becoming of a Police Chief. Also, clear personal antipathies against me are irrelevant; the majority of Council are beyond troubled by this budgetary increase.  I do not have any powers to act unilaterally. Despite the sums spent by taxpayers to educate Council on the Province’s Strong Mayor Powers. There continues to be either a misunderstanding by some on Council or a politically motivated purposefully driven one by certain Council Members to create a false narrative that I can make unilateral budgetary decisions. This is factually incorrect. So attacking me personally, is again more about personal antipathies than anything factual.

– This is the first budget in the three-year build to meeting the CSPA, VandeGraaf pointed out, and the Cobourg Police Services’ total budget ask, for the past two or three years, is consistent with other Ontario police forces, both OPP and municipal.

Fact: What others may be doing, and I doubt it is a 20.5% increase, isn’t a good enough reason to slam a 20.5 % increase on the citizens of Cobourg, and I believe the public isn’t being fooled by this. The average citizen doesn’t look to know who or what is

responsible for Tax increases. So when the CPS Board chose to keep their budgets well below averages for three years where I, as Mayor, continually asked if they were adding enough, and then add 20.5 % which would then add a 5-6% of a total tax increase to every resident on top of any other increases from the County and town, I believe the members of the Board knew exactly what they were doing.

– Bureau recalled how the mayor had asked council to vote to send the budget back, rather than doing so unilaterally, as is his prerogative under Strong Mayor Powers.

“There was no discussion and no willingness to hear from the board or the chief on the budget,” he said.

Fact: Yes, because the last few times I’ve used SMP, certain members of Council would then call Special meetings to criticize me as Mayor for using Strong Mayor Powers. Now that I’m not using SMP, I’m criticized for that.

– There was some discussion about diverting more business-centre revenue than the current $2.8 million to bring the increase down. This is a widely touted source by past mayors for its effect in keeping so many capital purchases off the tax bill, and Bergiron said, the board has sole discretion how these funds are to be used.

Fact: I have a legal opinion that would counter that from our Integrity Commissioner who when reviewing the  MOU suggested that all business unit funds need to be shown in revenue. This is exactly what the CPS Board has done for the past 10 years. I pushed back last year at this practice example.

– It’s like putting a band-aid on a shark bite – it’s not going to help,” stated Board Member Pepper.

Fact: Except that it’s a self-inflicted shark bite that their Board has caused.

– Bureau recalled last week’s council meeting, when Beatty asked the mayor if the board could make a presentation and was told no.

Fact:  The Deputy Mayor still doesn’t want to accept that it isn’t Council that needed the presentation. It’s the Mayor’s budget, not councils. As Mayor, I would have been happy to have been invited or asked.

– “I think we should give them another kick at the can, for want of a better description than conciliation or arbitration,” Bergiron said.

Fact: I would suggest that it’s the Board who needs another “kick at the can” in understanding that it’s their responsibility to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen.

– Bureau favoured doing both – should they make progress with council, he said, they could cancel conciliation.

Fact:  Again, no budget has been presented by the Mayor. Not sure what they are choosing to fight.

– Beatty reminded the board that there’s a hard budget deadline of Feb. 1. VandeGraaf advised the board to engage legal counsel now in case conciliation becomes necessary.

Opinion:  Seems to me by their very public actions they have always been looking for a fight.

– Board Vice-Chair Sean Graham mentioned the cost involved in the conciliation process, member Pepper noting that it would also be a cost for the town. In recognition of this, he moved that the Police Services Board send a letter to council suggesting a presentation to be made both in open and closed session on the

budget and, meanwhile, proceed with preparations for conciliation if that becomes necessary. “I think it’s the only real thing we can do,” Graham agreed.

Fact: No letter was sent; no invitation was received. Instead, as Mayor, I reached out asking for dates.  The chair immediately suggested since the Chief’s schedule didn’t allow for a presentation to the council before Dec.1st

Fact:  Instead, I accommodated the Chief’s schedule and pushed the entire budget process back inclusive of public engagements and council meetings.

Fact: It is my understanding the CPS Board is attempting to engage a Conciliator, as I’ve said, when a budget has not even been presented to Council.

Fact: I can assure those presenting to Council from the CPS Board, they will certainly be treated by me with professionalism, unlike how they have treated me in the two times I came to the CPS board since getting elected. My favourite was the last time I was there, when the former Board Chair tried stopping me from even asking a second follow up question.

Fact: As Mayor, I cannot stop a 20.5% increase. If the Council wants this. I cannot use Strong Mayor Powers, or any powers, to ultimately stop this if Council’s majority will is to support this.