Council ditches bylaw option, opts for private security for seasonal patrols

Vernon city councillors voted to hire seasonal security members after a back and forth meeting Monday with some members expressing their frustrations with the proposal.

The discussion came after Coun. Scott Anderson put forward a motion back in June for staff to explore the idea of hiring private security, but staff recommended hiring bylaw compliance officers instead.

“Our motion specifically asked for private security costs, and what we got is solutions that completely ignored that, and that in itself is an issue” Anderson said.

Coun. Kari Gares agreed with Anderson and told Vernon Matters she wanted to see other options to ensure that council selects something that provides the most value for the price.

“If we are really going to be looking at costs and how that costs are going to play out and what those rules are going to be, we need the full picture and we simply didn’t get that,” Gares said.

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As previously reported, city staff recommended council support an option that would provide two bylaw compliance officers, at five days a week from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

“Let’s be honest here, option two which was only five days a week, what about the other two days? I mean is that going to be weekends are not covered, or maybe a Monday [and] Wednesday not covered? The reality is, is that we need seven day a week coverage and two isn’t really enough,” Gares said.

Gares told council on Monday she investigated the cost of hiring private security and was told it would cost around $18,000 a month, which is much cheaper than the city’s estimate of $134,600 for the dates of May 1 to Sept. 30.

“The quote that I received is $18,000 a month for three full time private security that go seven days a week, not five for the same section of time,” she said.

Despite some members’ support of the push for private security, the city argued bylaw compliance officers would be better suited to patrol the city overnight because of their rapport with the RCMP and their ability to act on bylaw contraventions.

During the council meeting Coun. Kelly Fehr inquired about liability if a private security firm were to step on private property to do patrols.

CAO Will Pearce stated if council chose private security, the private security firm would not be authorized to go on private property or act on bylaw contraventions.

“The city will not pursue a relationship that would permit or encourage private security to go on private lands in the name of the city. If a private landowner wishes to have private security obviously on their land, they can authorize that,” Pearce said.

Council ultimately decided to ditch the staff recommendation and opted to look into the costs of hiring private security for the two downtown business improvement areas.

In order to determine costs, the city will be entering into a procurement process by issuing a request for quotes in the weeks ahead.

The information gathered from the procurement process is expected to be brought back for council’s consideration at a later date.