The West Nipissing Police Services Board won’t have to worry about the legal bill it racked up while fighting the municipality about replacing the municipal police with the OPP.
The invoice totalled nearly $100,000 which put the police budget in negative territory.
However, West Nipissing council has directed staff to pay the bill.
When the majority of the previous council voted to switch to the OPP, the police board took exception to the process and asked the courts for a judicial review to examine the process.
Ultimately the police board lost the case when a judge ruled again it in mid-November.
The matter was finally put to rest on December 14th when the deadline to appeal the judge’s decision expired and the board didn’t appeal the ruling.
One of the supporters to pay the bill was Mayor Joanne Savage.
Savage was worried that if faced with a budget shortfall, other invoices not related to the OPP transition debate could come to the police board and without money to pay for these bills, the person could take the municipality to court.
Savage said that would mean the municipality encountering more legal bills when it could all be avoided by putting the police budget back in the black.