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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday January 31, 2007 - 9 Oakville man new chair of police services board By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The Halton Regional Police Board has crowned a new chair. The seven-member, civilian group, which oversees the police services, elected Robert Maich of Oakville during a board meeting yesterday. Maich received a four to three majority vote over vice chair Richard Burgess, who will continue in his role under Maich. "I think the important thing is to keep the momentum we have going," said Maich. "One of the important things to complete, fairly and successfully, is bargaining with the police association and obviously many of the issues brought forward including staffing and recruiting." Finding a balance between the needs of the police services and the reality of the budget was also on Maich's mind. "You have keeping up with the growth of this community in Halton on the one hand and on the other hand being financially responsible for it," he said. Maich cited a long list of qualifications in his bid for chairman. These included such managing roles as Board Director for Big Brothers of Metro Toronto, President and Board Director of Silcorp, and Managing Director and President of Colgate (Africa) Ltd., where he worked at the company's headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. "At 26 I became the youngest president Colgate ever had except they said it was in Africa and I'd never been to Africa in my life," said Maich. "It was a great adventure for my wife and I. It was tremendous." Maich says that as chair of the Halton Regional Police Services Board he will have the opportunity to give back to the community. "The one thing I really like about the police board is it's a way to have an impact, positively, on all the communities that make up Halton," he said. "It's just a crucial essential service and it's good to be a contributor, along with all the other board members, to that." Maich's election brings to a close Ken Musgrave's time as chair. "My year as chair is coming to an end and despite the fact that it's been a long and difficult year I enjoyed it," he said. After the election Musgrave reflected on the major accomplishments of his term. "The most important thing was the selection of a new chief of police," he said. "We had a very fine police chief in Chief (Ean) Algar and so far I have no reason to believe that Chief Gary Crowell isn't going to be just as fine." As important as it was the selection was just one issue in Musgrave's time as chair. "We were selecting a new chief, selecting a new deputy, we had contracts with both the senior officers' association and the police association to deal with and that takes a lot of time." FINAL CLEAROUT on remaining fall and winter wear ALL REMAINING SALE MERCHANDISE (and more) new spring '07 items arriving daily DOWNTOWN OAK VILLE 183 Lakeshore Road East · 905.845.8911 www.garveysmenswear.com · Free parking at rear of store MON - WED · 9am - 6pm | THU - FRI · 9am - 8pm SAT · 9am - 6pm | SUN · 12pm - 4pm