By Thia James

City looks to recoup money paid to fired police officer

Apr 17, 2015 | 6:38 AM

The City of Prince Albert is looking to recover the money paid to a former police officer whose dismissal was upheld by the Saskatchewan Police Commission.

The Prince Albert Police Board of Commissioners will discuss the possibility of recovering both the money paid to Patrick Robin, as well as the legal costs associated with his case.

On Thursday, Mayor Greg Dionne, a member of the board, said they will consider their options, which could include whether the City can collect the money from the province or Robin himself.

“If I believe the money should be paid back to the taxpayer and we have a legal remedy to do that, I believe we should collect it,” Dionne said. “We were right in our decision to fire Patrick Robin, and it was the review board appointed by the commission (Saskatchewan Police Commission) that said that we had to start paying him, which we had to because we were ordered to.”

The Saskatchewan Police Commission informed the Prince Albert Police Service recently that its decision to fire Robin would be upheld. In 2010, the former police officer attempted to prosecute a traffic ticket against a driver, leading to his dismissal. 

Missing pet

'She means the world to our family': Woman seeks help in finding missing pet parrot

7h ago

BE CAREFUL ON THE ROADS

Semi flips outside P.A.; one of dozens of incidents on Sask. roads due to winter weather

7h ago

NO GO FOR BUSES

School bus routes outside P.A. canceled due to spring snowstorm

12h ago

Robin appealed his firing to the Saskatchewan Police Commission and he was reinstated. The police service appealed his reinstatement, and placed him on leave.

While on leave, Robin was paid more than $80,000 annually, including $89,565.84 in 2011 and $88,663.88 in 2012, according to the City’s municipal public accounts documents. The City will publicly release the final total of both the amount paid to Robin, as well as the legal costs, Dionne said.

“Because that should be public knowledge, it’s taxpayers’ money that was spent. And so, we will be preparing a report that will go to council first, because that’s the process, let them know and then release it to the public.”

Dionne said it’s going to be an open and public process. He said this is so the public understands the strain the City was under.

If the City were to recoup the money, it wouldn’t go back into the police payroll, but into a City reserve account since it would be considered surplus.

As for the Saskatchewan Police Commission’s decision to uphold Robin’s dismissal, Dionne said he is happy with it.

“I knew when you read the first decision, it should have happened the first time,” he said.

Dionne said this is why the City has to consider all of its options and make a “constructive” decision. He won’t make a decision to recoup the money out of revenge, despite calls from some for him to do so, he said.

“I’m not going to throw taxpayers’ money away if the ability to collect is very low. You know, we’re not going to spend more money on it. But I do believe there’s an opportunity.”

Dionne also wants the justice minister and the minister of corrections, public safety and policing to review the Saskatchewan Policing Commission’s appeal process.  If there was a 90-day limit on the amount of time it took for the commission to reach its decision on the police service’s appeal, the police wouldn’t have had to pay Robin over the years, Dionne noted.

“If anything’s going to come out of it, I hope, would be the change in the process. It can’t go on. This process (with Robin) started in 2010 and ended in 2015. I don’t care who you are, in government, civilians, everyone knows that’s not appropriate.”

Robin’s lawyer, Terry Zakreski, declined to comment about the possibility that the City would try to recover the money paid to his client and the legal costs.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames