The New Westminster police board has a new chair and its first-ever vice-chair.
At its July 16 meeting, the board held elections for the positions of chair and vice-chair of the board for a two-year term. Recent provincial amendments to the Police Act required the New Westminster police board to fill both positions.
Coun. Tasha Henderson, who was attending her first police board meeting, was acclaimed as chair. At a June 24 closed meeting, she was selected by city council as its representative to the board.
“I feel very humbled and look forward to working alongside my fellow police board members,” Henderson said in a New Westminster Police Department news release. “In my role as chair I will be guiding conversations to ensure that as a police board we’re providing strategic direction to the department, transparency to the community, and working efficiently in the service of all residents.”
With Mayor Patrick Johnstone no longer chairing the police board, Heather Boersma, the longest-serving member of the police board, chaired the July 16 meeting until a new chair had been elected. (Until this week’s meeting, the mayor has served as chair of the New Westminster police board.)
“This is new to all of us. Up until recently our mayor was the mandated chair. Some of the legislation has changed,” Boersma said. “We are doing our first selection.”
In addition to Henderson, Tuesday’s meeting was also a first for Kelsi Wall. The New West resident, who is a council appointee to the board, was appointed to the police board through a June 17 order of the Lieutenant Governor.
Boersma said the board has not had a person in that position for about a year, so it is “really grateful” to have Wall on board.
Chair and vice-chair elected
At the July 16 meeting, police board members put two names forward for consideration as chair; Mary Trentadue nominated Boersma and Drew Hart nominated Henderson.
Boersma, who has served on the police board since July 2021, said she has a young baby and will be returning to work in October, so she does not have the capacity to take on the chair’s role at this time.
“The reason I nominated you Heather is because of the knowledge – the knowledge of the department and the connections with all of the senior management,” Trentadue said. “But I completely appreciate that it would be too much for you, especially going back to work.”
Trentadue said she is not opposed to having Henderson as the board’s chair but wanted to ensure that she has an opportunity to learn the role. She said the chair spends a lot of time managing the discussion at the board table and less time providing an opinion and debating the issues.
Board member Alejandro Diaz suggested that Boersma could serve as vice-chair and support Henderson as chair.
Hart said that part of the chair’s role is to connect to city council and the mayor’s office, so he believes Henderson is well-placed to manage that work.
Noting that part of the intent of legislative changes had been intended to “preserve a bit of distance” between the police board and city council, Wall questioned if putting the council representative in the chair’s role is too similar to having the mayor as chair.
“I think it is more separate because it is not the chair of both bodies, whereas the mayor was chair of both council and police board,” Hart said. “I think there is still that potential opportunity for conflict, but I think that it is also part of the rationale of mandating a vice-chair as well.”
Boersma said police boards were previously permitted to have vice-chairs but that was not something the New Westminster Police Board had ever had.
Even though she is new to the board, Henderson said she had no objections to serving as the chair. She stated the chair is not as involved in the conversation but is able to learn along the way by facilitating the conversations of those having more knowledge and expertise.
“That actually could be a good thing,” she said.
The police board unanimously voted in Henderson as chair and Boersma as vice chair.
A report to the board stated that once every two calendar years, a municipal police board must elect one of its members as chair and another member as vice-chair.
The chair is a non-voting member of the municipal police board, with the exception “that if there is a tie vote at a meeting of the board, the chair must cast the deciding vote,” said the report.
