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VICTORIA -- City police chief Paul Battershill resigned Wednesday after a nine-month RCMP investigation -- into allegations that were never made public -- failed to uncover any wrongdoing on his part.
Despite his exoneration on criminal and financial matters, Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe, who chairs the police board, said the board had suffered a "loss of confidence" in Battershill as a leader and accepted his resignation as chief effective immediately.
Battershill, who could not be reached to comment, voluntarily resigned, Lowe said.
Battershill has been police chief since 1999, when he was hired from his post as deputy chief with the Vancouver police department.
Battershill was initially suspended with pay by Lowe last fall and later placed on administrative leave while the RCMP investigated allegations against him.
Lowe has refused to reveal what those allegations are, only describing them vaguely as "a personnel issue."
He said a settlement agreement with Battershill includes a clause that prevents both sides from publicly revealing the allegations or investigation results.
"I'm not at liberty to say what the nature of the complaint was," Lowe told reporters at a news conference at police headquarters.
Police Act investigations are not about criminal acts but involve matters of public trust, such as abuse of authority, discreditable conduct, negligence of duty, deceit, corrupt practices and improper disclosure of information.
Lowe would not say whether any such allegations were made against Battershill and what the investigation uncovered, if anything.
Battershill's resignation means there will no longer be a disciplinary hearing against him, and the police board now considers the matter closed, said Lowe. A disciplinary hearing had been scheduled for Aug. 18.
When asked if the largely secretive process provided enough information for taxpayers, who have paid Battershill's $165,000 annual salary for more than nine months, Lowe said he felt it was appropriate given the legal restrictions.
"I think we as a police board have acted very appropriately and we are looking after the best interests of the taxpayers," he said.
The police department will pay $15,000 toward the legal fees Battershill incurred while defending himself, said Lowe.
He called the entire process difficult for the department and its officers.
Lowe deflected calls for more public accountability by suggesting the office of the police complaint commissioner, which oversees all police investigations in the province, could order a public hearing into the matter if it wished, or if it thought it was in the public interest.
Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld could not immediately be reached.
He has said in the past that his office has the legal authority to call a public inquiry into the conduct of a police officer, even if that officer is no longer employed by his police department.
However, in such a case, it would be unlikely the officer could be disciplined, because that part of the Police Act only applies to serving officers.
The mayor, as chairman of the police board, has sole disciplinary power over the police chief and would have had to decide if the allegations were substantiated and, if so, what penalty was warranted.
The RCMP investigation ended in April. Battershill received a summary of the investigation report May 8, Lowe said.
Police Act investigations are not subject to provincial Freedom of Information rules, and the final report on Battershill is not public.
At first, the allegations appeared to stem from an FOI request that Victoria lawyer David Mulroney had filed for a local client, which asked for the expenses of the police chief and all senior officers, along with information and costs pertaining to people who have been dismissed by the police force or suspended.
A letter from Mulroney was then leaked to the media. In it, he claimed Vancouver law firm Heenan Blaikie had been hired by the chief to challenge Mulroney's FOI request.
However, Lowe said Battershill's leave was not related to the FOI or response.
Expense information was finally released to the public. It revealed more than $91,000 charged by Battershill on his credit card since January 2004, which both Lowe and the chief defended as appropriate work- and travel-related expenses.
Further FOI releases obtained by the Times Colonist newspaper revealed that a turnover of senior police officers during Battershill's tenure as chief had cost taxpayers more than $600,000 in severance packages since Dec. 2002.
At least six officers, who were said to have differences with Battershill, were asked by the chief if they would consider leaving and were then bought out through the police board.
One severance, for Battershill's former executive secretary, Joanne Zimmerman, who had worked at the department for 16 years, allowed her to use her remaining sick days until Aug. 1, 2007, then get paid outstanding holidays, then receive full salary for 18 months if she agreed to a non-disclosure clause that forbade her to talk publicly about her termination.
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