Winnipeg Police Board seeks fewer meetings, more members

The new head of the Winnipeg Police Board says more members and fewer meetings will make the police-oversight body more efficient and effective.

In a submission to city council,police board chair David Asperis requesting the board be expanded from seven to nine members and hold as few as four meetings a year, down from the current nine.

The proposed changes, published by the city on Friday, are intended to reduce the workload for the volunteer board. Asperpledged to review the board's structure and governance after Mayor Brian Bowman appointed him as chair in April.

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"The board's workload has been unduly excessive since its inception in June 2013. For example in 2016, each board member was required to attend an average of 51 meetings," Asper writes in the submission to council, which faces police-board approval on Friday.

"The board will be making changes to reduce the total number of public and committee meetings and public consultations to an average of 16 to 20, including the proposed minimum of four regular public board meetings."

In addition to reducing the workload for individual police board members, fewer meetings will allow the board to focus on its priorities and engage in more informal outreach "through more effective means than regular public business meetings, which the public has demonstrated little interest in attending," Asperwrites.

Increasing the number ofboard members, he adds, will improve the board's "range and experience of skill sets" and also ensure the board is more diverse and better representative of Winnipeg as a whole.

Right now, the board has only one Indigenous member and no other people of colour. It also has only six members at the moment as a result ofthe death last week of businessperson and philanthropistLarry Licharson.

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If council approves the changes, the board could have three new faces a provincial appointee to replace Licharson and two more members.

The submission to council also suggests a clarification to remove any doubt the mayor has the powerto appoint someone other than a city councillor to the position of police board chair.

In the spring,Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) asserted Bowman could not appoint Asper to his position. Prior to Asper, St. James-Brooklands-WestonCoun. Scott Gillingham and former councillorScott Fielding served as police-board chairs.