The Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board is expected to be bolstered by two new provincial appointees, boosting the total number of members to 10 from nine.
The board is typically made up of the two cities’ mayors, plus appointees from each city and five provincial appointees. The new appointments would boost the latter number to six.
Last fall, provincial appointee Paul Schachter resigned from the board, saying he he did not have the independent access to information — including oversight of police operations — that he needed to ensure the public was getting an efficient police force.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins said the upcoming appointments of former NDP finance minister Elizabeth Cull and Tim Kituri, program manager of Royal Roads University’s master of global management program, will shore up a board that has been chronically short of bodies. “We’re very grateful to the province for moving quickly on these appointments and getting them done.”
Desjardins said she and Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto deliberately chose to increase the complement of provincial appointees “because we’ve been so chronically short.”
“Having 10 members as opposed to nine will allow us to get some good work done,” she said.
The board is also currently without an appointed representative from Esquimalt, though Desjardins said that is in the works.
Cull, who was first elected the MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head in 1989, served as minister of health, deputy premier and minister of finance before leaving office in 1996.
Kituri, who moved to Canada from Kenya in 2000, has been in his role at the university since 2013.
Desjardins said Kituri’s insight in equity, diversity and inclusion and communications will be invaluable, while Cull’s wealth of experience will fill a lot of roles.
“We’ve been able to really fill in many of the skill sets that we have lost over the last little bit,” she said.
Desjardins added that both know their way around boards of directors and how they function.
“And let’s face it, police boards have that extra layer of complexity to them and ours that much more because of the amalgamation and two communities, two mayors and all that goes with that governance,” she said. “So, having people that know their way around boards and how things function is a very strong asset.”
The terms of the new provincial appointments end June 30, 2024.
Reached late Wednesday afternoon, Cull said she had not been officially notified of the appointment, so it would not be appropriate to comment.
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
