Toronto Council meets today! I will be providing live coverage right here in this thread. With nearly 200 items on the agenda, including police reform, this is going to take a while.

Live stream will kick off at 9:30 a.m. You can watch it here:

Mayor Tory’s police reform item — the one without a specific budget reduction target — has been designated as the mayor’s first key item, so it will be debated first after preliminaries. (2nd key item is expanded patios for COVID.)

Follow the agenda here: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/decisionBodyProfile.do?function=doPrepare&meetingId=18760#

Quick reminder for @cityhallwatcher subscribers: I’m holding off on releasing this week’s issue until AFTER this meeting. Hopefully it’ll be coming your way tomorrow. Depends on how fast council works through this agenda.

Council has begun.

755 people watching the beginnings of this meeting. WAY higher than normal viewership for council. New viewers are currently watching Councillor Stephen Holyday laud some recent audit reports. BUT stick with it! A police funding debate is coming soon. Promise.

Councillor Josh Matlow moves to WITHDRAW his item about the 10% police budget cut.

Matlow says he and Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam will instead introduce amendments to Tory’s motion, seeking to change it to be closer to their original motion

Withdrawal carries on a show of hands

That greatly simplifies this debate. There is now ONE police reform item. We’ll likely see several votes on amendments to change Tory’s motion, e.g. to add a 10% (at least) budget reduction target.

Live viewer count is above 1,000. Clerk should turn on monetization.

We made it! Police budget debate is starting now. You can join 1,303 others and watch live on YouTube:

Councillor Gary Crawford kicks things off, asking City Manager Chris Murray about how many police officer positions would be eliminated with a 10% cut. Murray agrees that it’s probably in the ballpark of 1,000 officers.

Expect a lot of fear mongering like this about the potential impacts of a police budget cut. BUT no one is voting on a police budget today. Council would be requesting the police submit a draft budget for 2021 with a reduction. That draft would still be subject to approval.

So any notion that Council would be reckless in requesting a 2021 police budget decrease today strikes me as a major stretch.

As I write in my column, the main thing supporting a budget cut today would do is show Council is serious about change. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/06/29/budget-cut-a-blunt-instrument-that-could-signal-toronto-council-is-serious-about-police-reform.html

We’re told Police Chief Mark Saunders is working on connecting to this meeting so he can answer questions from members of council.

Questioning staff, Councillor James Pasternak points out that reducing the police budget would likely mean laying off diverse officers and impact police equity goals re: workforce diversity.

Councillor Paul Ainslie, hanging in the backyard with some old campaign signs, asks Police Chief about whether TPS plans to post collected race-based data on the Open Data portal. Saunders commits to it.

Councillor Mark Grimes seems to be under the belief that the Matlow/Wong-Tam motion (now withdrawn) called for a cut to THIS YEAR’s police budget. It did not. It was a request for 2021.

Police Chief Mark Saunders says if Council requested a 10% budget cut he’d need to go to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, a board with the power to overrule council-imposed cuts to police budgets.

I always wonder how this rhetorical questioning strategy used by councillors plays with people who don’t usually watch.

Like, Coun. Holyday just asked City Manager who sits on the police board, a question he should know the answer to! (He knows, but wants answer “on the record”)

Councillor Wong-Tam asks Police Chief Saunders if the three-year moratorium on hiring recommended by the Transformational Task Force in 2017 actually happened. It did not, confirms Saunders. Police began hiring again about six months in. https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2017/08/10/toronto-police-board-backtracks-on-hiring-freeze-plans-to-hire-80-officers.html

Councillor Michael Ford asks Police Chief is a 10% cut to the police budget would “jeopardize community safety.” Saunders says it would.

Councillor John Filion is prominently displaying the cover of the book he wrote about Rob Ford.

Feels a bit odd that councillors are asking questions about the future of the Toronto police to a Toronto police chief who will be gone in a month.

Police Board Chair Jim Hart says it is possible for the police to provide a line-by-line budget. Councillor Cressy asks if police board could provide line-by-line now, instead of waiting until January. Hart says he’ll need to check, but thinks it’s doable.

This sort of the crux of the debate. How much trust do you have that a collaborative police reform process will actually achieve change? https://twitter.com/jpags/status/1277631461688999936

Council is now on lunch break until 2 p.m.

When they come back, we should start seeing speeches and amendment votes. Expect a request to embed a budget reduction target in Tory’s police reform motion.

Council has returned from lunch. After a bit of housekeeping, they’ll return to the police item. This debate will, I promise, be more action-packed in the afternoon session. Watch live here:

Okay, back to the police item. Are adding a couple of urgent items, there are 69 items left on this agenda.

Six of those items, or 8%, have to do with applications to remove trees.

Councillor Josh Matlow introduces amendments to Tory’s motion. The highlights:

- Give Council more control over lines in police budget
- Requests police provide 2021 budget with cut of at least 10%

Matlow’s also has a motion to delete Tory’s recommendations re: body cameras.

Full text of Matlow’s motions.

Matlow’s political evolution from proud centrist to one of the politicians leading the charge to cut the police budget has been a remarkable thing to watch. https://twitter.com/jpags/status/1277671213314248705

Councillor Wong-Tam has a five-part motion: restricting use of deadly force, eliminating OCPC appeal process for police budgets, establishing an accountability office & accountability table, alternatives to 911.

Councillor John Filion has three motions:

- Expanding auditor general jurisdiction to include police
- request province expand instances where cops can be suspended without pay
- request province require police complaints be investigated independently.

Filion says he’ll vote against Matlow’s 10% budget cut motion. With centre-left councillors like Carroll and Filion opposed, there is virtually no chance this part of the Matlow amendment will pass.

Councillor Ainslie’s got motions.
Requesting police post stuff to Open Data, and release their Use of Force Policy on their website.

Councillor Mike Colle has a motion too. He wants a report on establishing a crisis assistance service based on the CAHOOTS model from Eugene, Oregon.

There’s been talk of disarming the cops at this meeting, with Wong-Tam’s motion specifically calling for most officers to be disarmed. (With an exception for ETF.) Here are some use-of-force stats for the Toronto Police in 2019 from the latest police board meeting.

(“Less Lethal Shotgun” is some interesting nomenclature.)

Councillor Joe Cressy moves to request the police board provide line-by-line breakdown of 2020 police budget and make it public next month.

Cressy says he’ll support the Matlow/Wong-Tam 10% budget cut request. He says mayor’s proposal lacks clear targets, which are necessary to achieve real reform.

Councillor Gord Perks has two motions.

- Looking at non-police response models to calls involving homelessness, overdoses, etc.
- Reallocate funds for body cameras to social services.

Councillor Bailao moves to add community orgs, social services agencies and mental health support orgs to consultative process re: developing alternative models to policing.

Bailao says the debate today is not about a number. Does not sound like she’ll be supporting the 10% reduction request.

Councillor Fletcher has a motion requesting the police board ensure the new police chief has a track record and holds certain values.

Councillor Holyday moves a four-part motion calling for the police to provide more details at budget time, requesting the province amend the City of Toronto to expand jurisdiction of Auditor General to include the cops. Holyday says he can’t support motion to reduce police budget

Mayor John Tory is the last speaker on this item. We’ll be getting to voting shortly. It is going to be SUPER complex to keep track of all these amendments, but I will do my best.

Councillor Bradford will support the 10% police budget reduction request. https://twitter.com/BradMBradford/status/1277706257173041160

When the mayor speaks, all councillors have the right to question to him. Matlow asks why Tory is opposed to an “arbitrary” target for police budget reduction when he has supported other “arbitrary” targets with things like property taxes, service levels, etc.

Tory replies by saying he doesn’t want this debate to be all about a number. He says police reforms will achieve savings and then budget can be reallocated.

Voting time is here.

Councillor Holyday’s motion to delete the mayor’s recommendation and replace them with new, software police reform recommendations FAILS 1-23.

(Holyday was the only one in favour, FYI.)

Matlow’s amendment to Tory’s recommendations re: developing alternative models of community safety response FAILS 9-15.

Perks’ amendment to Tory’s motion specifically requesting alternative community safety response models to calls involving homelessness, overdoses, gender-based violence, mental health and traffic offences FAILS 11-13.

Bailao’s motion calling consultation with community-based orgs, social service agencies and mental health support orgs on developing non-police response models CARRIES 24-0.

Filion’s motion seeking provincial amendment to City of Toronto Act to allow Toronto’s Auditor General to audit police budget CARRIES 24-0.

Matlow’s motion to delete mayor’s recommendation re: accelerating body cams FAILS 6-18.

Perks’ motion to delete Tory’s recommendation re: body cams and reallocate funds to social services FAILS 8-16.

Matlow’s motion to request the province amend Police Services Act to allow Toronto have direct oversight over police budget CARRIES 22-2.