A member of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board has come under scrutiny after it was revealed he made a donation to the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the days leading up to his appointment.
Last week, local lawyer Joe Greco was named in an article by the Investigative Journalism Foundation that looked at PC donors in Ontario and their provincial appointments to police service boards in recent years.
According to the article, Greco made a $2,000 donation to the political party — the biggest donation he’s made to the party to date — just two weeks before becoming the newest provincial appointee to the Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board.
But in a statement to SooToday, Greco said his appointment to the board had already been in the works for “some time” prior to making the donation.
“I made the donation because I do believe in what the current Ontario PC’s stand for and it is my own opinion that they are the best party for Ontario in the current climate,” Greco said.
“I applied to the police services board so that I can serve the community that I was born and raised in with the utmost professionalism and dedication.”
Police service boards are civilian oversight committees that oversee how policing is provided in their community. Some responsibilities include the establishment of policies, objectives and priorities, as well as the recruiting and appointing of police chiefs and deputy chiefs.
Currently, the province appoints two members of the police services board in the Sault, while the remainder are appointed by the municipality.
Greco was appointed to the board in late August, following the resignations of chair John Bruno and vice chair Ian MacKenzie after it was revealed that Sault Ste. Marie Police Service had overspent its budget by nearly $3 million.
In his resignation letter, MacKenzie cited “outrageous political interference and vindictiveness,” for his departure, while Bruno claimed there had been a “politicized campaign, through acts of bullying, manipulation and censorship” at the board level.
In a pointed response, Sault Mayor Matthew Shoemaker — who is also a member of the police services board — claimed that Bruno and MacKenzie tried to “deflect scrutiny by questioning the motives of those asking legitimate questions” after members of council posed several questions to the board regarding the budget overrun.
In August, SooToday reported that police were projecting a $1.45-million over-expenditure for this year.
The police services board approved an 11-per-cent increase to next year’s Sault Police budget on Sept. 24 — the same day Greco was officially sworn in as a board member.
- with files from David Helwig