City will pay half of Hess Village police costs

The city will pay half of Hess Village club owners' paid duty policing costs for the next two years as part of a special pilot project passed at city council Friday.

The move means the city will also retroactively pay half of the paid duty costs billed to bar owners this year, starting from Victoria Day weekend back in May.

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This comes after years of discussion and debate pushed by club owners and Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr, who called this a "win for business owners and community understanding."

"The prevailing argument for me was an unfair, unjust, unprecedented and in nowhere else in Canada two-tiered cost," Farr said. Policing levels in the area will not change.

For the last several years, about a dozen Hess Village bar and restaurant owners have been paying about $115,000 a year to cover policing in the city's entertainment district. Both city staff and Hamilton police say that sort of arrangement doesn't exist anywhere else in Canada.

In that time crowds have been dwindling, and club owners have decried paying for police costs themselves. Several have ended up before the city's licensing tribunal for unpaid police bills, and Sizzle/Koi owner Dean Collett launched a lawsuit in 2013 over what he called an unfair practice.

Collett says this is a compromise club owners can live with for now. "I've been one for compromise from the beginning," he said. "This doesn't solve the issue in the long term, but it at least puts a moratorium on it."

Back to the start

This new pilot project actually brings the policing cost split back to something closer to what was originally implemented between owners and the city back in 2000, and made a formal bylaw in 2005.

Back then, it was an informal agreement between a small group of club owners and the city that they would pay for half of policing costs while police paid for the rest. That changed in 2009, when the onus switched solely to club owners.

Now, we're back to a 50/50 split but with more supplementary police officers from places like the ACTION team and the mounted unit.

Coun. Matthew Green, who was instrumental in massaging the original motion so that it would pass at planning committee, said it was important the city not end up testing a legal precedent on the matter.

"I believe if this was argued in a court of law, we'd probably lose," Green said. Collett told CBC News he'd keep the lawsuit on hold over the next two years because of this "good faith gesture" from the city.

But if things go back to the way they used to be, he would once more revisit the lawsuit, he said.

'Subsidizing private business'

Though the pilot project passed by a fairly wide motion during a vote, not all councillors were happy with it.

Some voiced concerns that community events end up paying extra for paid duty costs too, and this should be no different.

"We have a lot of charitable organizations and community events across this city that pay a fortune in policing," said Ward 15 Coun. Judi Partridge.

"They bring in lots for the economy," she said, noting that the Santa Claus parade brings 40,000 people into Waterdown. "Here, we're talking about subsidizing private business."

Coun. Brenda Johnson echoed that sentiment. She visited Hess on a police ride along not long ago, and made note of all of the extra police who were there that aren't covered by the bylaw.

"We're already subsidizing this event by over 50 per cent," she said.

As a counter argument, Coun. Terry Whitehead noted that community events have the option to apply for funding from the city that will cover police costs something Hess Village's club owners can't do.

adam.carter@cbc.ca | @AdamCarterCBC