THUNDER BAY -- The previous Thunder Bay Police Services board's decision to promote Sylvie Hauth to the top cop job was done despite results of a public survey calling for new leadership from outside.
As they were about to begin their hiring process to select the permanent replacement to recently retired police chief J.P. Levesque, the police services board last August had launched an online survey, seeking public input on the issues and challenges facing the police force, priorities for a new chief and qualities and credentials that a new chief should possess.
Hauth, who had been deputy chief for less than two years and was in her second stint as acting chief, was named permanent police chief in November.
The survey received 590 responses, a rate that executive search company Odgers Berndtson in its summary report to the board described as "exceptionally high" compared to its expectation of between 30 and 50 participants. The report was recently made available through a freedom of information request.
For the first question, which asked about the issues and challenges facing the police service "today and over the next two-three years in terms of internal management and service to the community," the first category of feedback outlines the desire for new leadership from outside.
The summary indicated responses including the "status quo is not working" with the need for a new chief and police services board, a loss of confidence from its members and community in the service and its leadership, the need for a new chief that has no allegiances to the current administration, a huge divide between senior administration and the rank and file, and years of mismanagement and nepotism.
On Nov. 1, 2018, then-board chair Jackie Dojack sat alongside Hauth at a news conference announcing the new chief's hiring. At the time, Dojack was asked about why the police services board chose to fill the position from within the force.
“If there had been an external candidate who had been the best person for the job, that person would have been hired,” Dojack said. “We felt that it was our duty to do the national search and to hire the best person and that’s what we’ve done.”
Hauth, a 25-year member of the Thunder Bay Police Service, was first hired as a front desk cadet in 1993. She subsequently rose through the ranks of the service and was promoted to deputy chief in January 2017 after climbing the ladder to inspector. She was first made acting chief in July 2017, after Levesque was placed on administrative suspension after facing criminal charges that were ultimately dismissed.
After Levesque was reinstated, Hauth was re-appointed acting chief following Levesque's retirement earlier in 2018.
Former board member Don Smith was involved in the early stage meetings of the hiring process, but his term as a provincial appointee had expired when the board decided to hire Hauth. Smith was later brought back to the board in December as the city's municipal appointee in Dojack's place, but resigned after the Ontario Civilian Police Commission's report by Sen. Murray Sinclair recommended that all members with the exception of Reitberger no longer sit on the board.
Smith on Thursday said board members had the public consultation survey results during those preliminary meetings. He said he advocated for an outside hire, though he stressed his view was not about Hauth or any potential candidates and whether they were capable of doing the job.
"I just felt that Thunder Bay needed a fresh start," Smith said. "I thought we needed somebody with no baggage, no history, to come in and take over the department."
Joe Virdiramo, a former Thunder Bay city councillor who sat on the board when Hauth was hired, directed questions to current board chair Celina Reitberger. Reitberger was unavailable for comment.
"We did do a competition. We interviewed a number of people and Sylvie was selected," Virdiramo said.
Attempts on Thursday to reach Dojack and former board member Brian McKinnon were also unsuccessful.
The composition of the board significantly changed a month after the hiring was announced, as newly elected Mayor Bill Mauro and Westfort Coun. Kirsten Oliver assumed the positions previously held by McKinnon and Virdiramo. Smith has since been replaced by former Fort William First Nation chief Georjann Morriseau.
The previously vacant provincial appointee seat was briefly filled by local lawyer John Cyr, though the government quickly reversed course and removed him less than a week after he was sworn in when it was found that he had written a letter to the editor in support of suspended Sen. Lynn Beyak's speech defending the positive aspects of residential schools.
