Council approves recommendation to reconfigure Council Chambers for security measures

Chatham-Kent Councillors approved the administration’s recommendation to reconfigure the current Council Chambers as part of new security measures at the Civic Centre at their April 29 meeting.

Security guards have been in place at the Civic Centre since the March 25 meeting, one week after an incident when Chatham-Kent Police were called twice to escort a suspicious man from the Council chambers.

Michael Duben, Chatham-Kent CAO, said administration was made aware of Councillors feeling threatened in the Chambers and incidents where Council members and staff have been subject to verbal threats and encountered physical altercations.

The municipality issued a Request for Quotation from security firms for March 5-8, two weeks before the March 18 incident, when the suspicious person was removed.

Top Defense Security Services was awarded the $7,580 security contract, and they were on duty for the first time at the March 25 meeting.

“I have an obligation, as does everyone in senior management, to make sure that everybody is safe,” said Duben. The measures are meant to protect the public attending meetings, as well as Council and staff.

The proposed physical changes in Council Chambers include installing waist-high barriers and gates to prevent unauthorized entry into the circle during meetings and reconfiguring the public seating area, as the current layout has no hard barriers to keep members from entering the main floor.

The proposed reconstruction project cost is $29,615, to be funded from the Buildings Lifecycle Reserve.

The cost prompted South Kent Councillor Ryan Doyle to question the need to make the physical changes and ask that the vote on the two items be separated.

“I can support the security guard being here, but I can’t support spending $30,000 to redo this room when we are potentially about to move with the next couple of years; it doesn’t make sense to me,” Doyle said, referring to the Civic Centre’s possible move to the former Sears’ portion of the Downtown Chatham Centre.

North Kent Councillor Rhonda Jubenville agreed.

“If the rules of Council Chambers are followed, that the Clerk reads before every meeting, and enforced by our security guards, I don’t understand why would need the extra measures implemented, knowing that Council Chambers could be moving down the road in a few years,” Jubenville said.

Jubenville asked about security officers’ authority to remove an unwanted or unruly person from the chambers physically.

Ed Soldo, GM of Engineering and Infrastructure, said the purpose of the security guards is to keep order “and if someone were to become to the point where we had to remove them physically, they would work with our Police Services to remove them.”

East Kent Ward 3 Councillor John Wright asked if the Chatham-Kent Police Service offered any pricing for having an officer on duty instead of hiring a security service.

The CKPS was not considered.

“On an hourly basis, the fee for the security guard is significantly lower than the hourly rate for a police officer,” Saldo said, as the price for hiring an off-duty CKPS officer is a minimum charge of four hours at a rate of $75 per hour, plus HST.

Duben said security measures have been implemented by many municipalities across the province because of the same safety concerns, including smaller centres that have adopted more stringent regulations than what was suggested for Chatham-Kent.

Duben said that even if Councillors were not interested in approving the security measures, he still had an obligation to ensure the safety of municipal staff members.

“I do think I have the same obligation to each of you as Councillors and your families,” Duben said. “That’s why it has come forward because there have been threats and there have been situations where people have felt uncomfortable.”

While Duben said he would not identify Councillors who came forward with their concerns, Ward 4 Councillor Jamie McGrail and Ward 6’s Alysson Storey both came forward to discuss unsettling incidents they had experienced.

“I have been subject to people coming up, in not nice manners, in this Council Chamber, and it really shook me up for days,” McGrail said. “I believe everybody owns the right to sit in this horseshoe and make their decisions, feel good about their decisions, and feel safe.”

Storey said the reconfiguration and security cost is “a reasonable expense in terms of the scale of our overall budget” and is worthwhile if it improves the safety of the public, staff and Council.

She said installing the safety measures in the current chambers is also important since the proposed move to the DCC is years away.

“There have been multiple times this term, including our last meeting, because I interacted with that individual by myself in the hallway, that I have felt genuinely concerned for my safety in this building,” Storey said.

The motion was split into two votes as Councillors approved administration’s recommendations to make physical changes to the Council Chambers’ layout by a 12-4 margin while unanimously supporting the continuation of security guards on duty during meetings.

Security guards are posted at the Civic Centre entrance from 5:30-6 p.m. for Council meetings.

Members of the public receive a visitor badge to wear while in the building, which they turn in as they exit. Staff, Councillors and media members are required to present municipal badges to enter.

Security will be present in the building during meetings and authorized to remove anyone violating the procedural bylaw.

The cost of the reconfiguration will be funded as a variance from the 2024 facilities operating budget, while the business case for ongoing security will be presented during 2025 budget talks.

Michael Bennett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Ridgetown Independent News