|
Chief
Sabo apologizes to Klassens | 2002
difficulties | vows to work with
new mayor | Sabo 2004 | Sabo 2005 |
Chief Russell
Sabo (2003)
Vote reveals lack of
confidence in chief: police union
Shannon Boklaschuk,
The StarPhoenix, June 05, 2003
A city police union vote shows
"a significant majority" of officers do not have confidence
in the leadership of Chief Russell Sabo and the ability of the
board of police commissioners to govern the service, Const. Stan
Goertzen said in an interview Wednesday evening.
"This is not a small group
of disgruntled people. This is not people who are whiny about
minor things," said Goertzen, the union's president, after
the votes were tallied.
Over the period of a week,
members of the Saskatoon City Police Association -- which represents
rank-and-file officers -- were able to make their opinions known
during a secret ballot confidence vote. The vote ended Wednesday.
"The members overwhelmingly
indicated that they do not have confidence," Goertzen said.
"This is the largest voter turnout ever in my memory. That
exceeds the numbers for the last two or three contracts."
He said more than 84 per cent
of the membership -- or 321 officers -- cast ballots. However,
he would not release the results of the vote.
"These numbers were always
meant for, No. 1, the board and the chief, to show them that
there is a problem here," Goertzen said.
Both Sabo and commission chair
Leanne Bellegarde Daniels have been advised on the specific numbers
of the vote of confidence, he said. The union wants to set up
a meeting with both the chief and the police commission to discuss
the outcome.
"One thing I really want
to stress is that the concerns that have been voiced by our members
are all broad-based in nature, and they far exceed the issues
surrounding the dismissal of chief Dave Scott and the misconduct
of Chief Russell Sabo," Goertzen said.
"It will be the broad-based
issues that we'll be meeting with the board and with the chief
to try and iron out."
Goertzen would not say what
those broad-based issues are, but said that some of them go back
to before Sabo became chief.
"I want to speak to the
board and the chief, to give them a chance to address them first,"
he said. "A number of those issues, we have already spoken
with them, and they haven't been addressed. And that's the reason
for this vote."
While the results of the vote
can be disregarded, that wouldn't make good sense, Goertzen added.
"We are major stakeholders
in wanting to provide the best police service possible,"
he said.
Sabo was reinstated last month
following a paid leave of absence due to a harassment investigation
against him.
Five out of 42 complaints filed
by his secretary were deemed to have merit by an independent
investigator.
Coun. Patricia Roe, a member
of the police commission, said she respects the officers' opinions,
but said the vote "is not going to change anything.
'The best way in any organization
that's going through a lot of change and so on, is to try and
work to make it successful," she said, adding the commission
will meet with the union.
"I trust these are good
intelligent people, and I trust that they will work to make it
successful, because that's what's going to benefit the citizens
of Saskatoon.
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
Police union
to vote on leadership confidence
CBC, May 22, 2003
REGINA -Saskatoon's police
chief and commission are facing a non-confidence vote by rank
and file cops. Members of the police association are expected
to cast ballots over the next week after the leadership of both
chief Russell Sabo and the police commission has been called
into question.
Russell Sabo
Grim-faced, tight-lipped police officers filed into a meeting
hall in downtown Saskatoon Wednesday night ready to grill their
bosses, the police commission, and its handling of a harassment
complaint against chief Sabo.
Chief Russell Sabo spent two
months at home with pay during an investigation into that complaint.
Now Sabo is back at work and the woman that filed the complaint
is still on medical leave.
Saskatoon mayor Jim Maddin
says that some police officers told him that Sabo should have
been fired. Maddin thinks that some of the feeling is rootted
in resentment for the firing of Sabo's predecessor Dave Scott.
Jim Maddin
"There's still some resentment that Dave Scott is no longer
the chief of police," Maddin says.
Last night there were also
questions about the shift to a new style of police work referred
to as community policing. That debate is said to have played
a part in Scott's firing and Sabo's hiring. Maddin has staked
his political career on the community policing concept and he
isn't likely to back down.
"Chief Sabo is in charge.
He's in command. And he has the support of the board," the
mayor says.
Police association president
Stan Goertzen says his members aren't happy with the answers
they are getting.
Copyright © 2003 Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
