The new citizen appointee to the Niagara Police Services Board is no stranger to the job.
Niagara Regional Council approved the appointment of Henry D'Angela to the board earlier this week.
D'Angela is a former Thorold Regional Councillor and Mayor, and says his latest defeat at the polls in October allowed him to take this position.
"Well, obviously not winning in the last election has given me some free time to do different things and I've always enjoyed my opportunity when I was on the police board. I was chair for three years there and we accomplished quite a bit: groundbreaking of the new headquarters, we had opened up the Fort Erie division, hiring of the chief and deputy chief."
D'Angela ran for the mayor's job in October, ultimately losing to Terry Ugulini.
Speaking to CKTB's Matt Holmes, D'Agnela outlines his priorities for the police services board.
"Well, definitely moving forward with Division One, getting that building moving forward. Again, usually with newer buildings you bring some cost savings which brings us back to the budget, that's always a big component. One of my strengths is as an account I understand financial statements, I understand budgeting, I understand long-term planning when it comes to finances." He adds, "You have to work very cooperatively to get the numbers down as best you can. On the flip side, you've got to be careful. You can't budget zero. Zero is not an adequate number and that's part of the process of why some of the numbers are higher now, because nothing can be budgeted at zero when you're talking about things like that because there's always labour costs."