Councillor Esther Pauls (Ward 7 – Central Mountain) was acclaimed as Vice Chair. Pictured: Board Chair Don Robertson. Photo Credit: Hamilton Police Services Board.
The Hamilton Police Service (HPS) Board recently announced that Shaun Padulo, the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ontario Shipyards, has been appointed to serve on the board for the next two years.
The HPS Board is the civilian body governing the Hamilton Police Service and is responsible “for ensuring the delivery of adequate and effective policing in Hamilton and to provide accountability to the public through governance activities that contribute to locally responsive policing.”
The board is made up of seven members: three provincial appointees, three representatives of City Council (including the Mayor), and one citizen appointed by Council.
Padulo becomes the third provincial appointee, joining Geordie Elms and Don Robertson.
The third provincial appointee position had been vacant for a number of months before a Jan. 23 press release confirmed that Padulo had been named.
Pat Mandy served on the board for six years but her appointment ended on Apr. 1, 2024 and then Fred Bennink was forced to leave a few weeks later due to new legislation that stipulates that a former auxiliary officer cannot serve on the board for the service with which they previously volunteered.
Bennink used to volunteer with HPS.
Don Robertson, a realtor and the owner of the Dundas Real McCoys hockey team, was appointed by the province to replace Mandy, but the third provincial replacement spot remained vacant for quite some time.
Ontario Shipyards is headquartered in Hamilton and Padulo has led the organization as President since 2018 and as CEO since 2022.
He started out as a deckhand aboard tugboats for Hamilton-based company McKeil Marine before taking on commercial roles with Dutch firms Dockwise Shipping B.V. and Boskalis Offshore B.V.
He holds a Master of Science in Maritime Economics and Logistics and is an alumnus of Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands), the University of British Columbia, and McMaster University.
Padulo attended his first HPS Board meeting on Feb. 20.
The HPS Board also announced on Jan. 28 that Robertson was acclaimed as Chair of the board for 2025, with Councillor Esther Pauls (Ward 7 – Central Mountain) acclaimed as Vice Chair.
At the time of the appointment, Robertson said, “Working in collaboration with the Service over the next eleven months, the Board will continue to focus on making certain we are in compliance with the Act (Community and Safety Policing Act, 2019) while being fiscally responsible with the police budget.”
“We will also continue to refer to our strategic plan to guide us in providing policing in Hamilton that is in line with policing priorities and concerns the community has identified through public engagement.”
The three City Council representatives on the HPS Board are Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath, Councillor Pauls, and Councillor Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2 – Downtown Hamilton), however, Kroetsch has been suspended indefinitely due to a complaint that he violated the board’s code of conduct.
The complaint filed against Kroetsch alleges that he violated the board’s code of conduct by failing to act “loyally, faithfully, and impartially” and failed to “inspire public confidence in the abilities and integrity of the board.”
Kroetsch brought forward measures to cut the police budget in 2024 and also voted to reject the budget at the final Council vote.
He has tweeted multiple times in support of defunding the police and also supported a group called Defund HPS which was led by ex-politician Sarah Jama.
Defund HPS called for an immediate 50 per cent reduction to the HPS budget.
Their protests also went further, calling for the police to be “abolished and dismantled.”
Kroetsch’s board ally attempting to cut the police budget in 2024 was civilian appointee Dr. Anjali Menezes, a family physician who specializes in anti-racism and has a background in activism.
She remains on the board.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
