Andy Pringle, close friend and colleague of Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard) and fishing buddy of ex-chief Bill Blair, is poised to become chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, sources tell the Star.

Current chair Alok Mukherjee is expected to resign as early as Wednesday and assume a teaching position at Ryerson University; Mukherjee has been chair for a decade.

Any possible move to install Pringle as chair must be voted in by the police board — and could happen as early as next month.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (open Denzil Minnan-Wong's policard), chair of the Civic Appointments Committee, said last night he “was not at liberty to discuss” Pringle’s bid.

A three-member appointments panel completed interviews Wednesday and will report its recommendations to the full committee next week, and then on to council for approval, likely in July, the councillor said.

John Tory sits on the police board and has moved to reconstruct the police watchdog agency in his image since becoming mayor. He removed the board’s lone black member. He led the selection of a police chief who is in favour of carding, an issue now considered toxic. And sources say the city council committee the mayor influences is recommending Pringle’s reappointment to the board.

City council must first confirm the move, and the appointment is sure to stir controversy from councillors who see Pringle as pro-police, weak on community consultation, and unlikely to hold police accountable.

He is also considered to be in favour of the controversial police practice of carding. He wanted to renew Bill Blair’s contract and relented only after the majority of the board balked. And he was considered by some to be one of the major stumbling blocks to Peter Sloly’s candidacy for police chief, advocating for Mark Saunders instead.

A source told the Star’s Betsy Powell Thursday that Pringle has no interest in becoming full-time chair of the TPSB and will only serve on an interim basis.

“He's doesn't have to time to devote to it and has never sought the position,” a source said.

During the last municipal election Pringle was targeted by mayoral candidate Doug Ford, who claimed Pringle was in a conflict of interest position for taking Blair on a fishing trip to New Brunswick. Pringle was using his friendship with Blair and Tory to work against the Ford candidacy, Ford claimed.

Pringle, a retired successful bond trader and staunch Conservative bigwig, said he paid for the trip and took it to develop a better understanding of the police budget, which had ballooned past $1 billion.

Pringle is Tory’s friend, his former chief of staff when Tory was provincial Conservative leader, and his campaign fundraiser in the last election.

Pringle’s three-year term as the city’s appointee to the police board ended last November. It has taken the city’s civics appointments committee this long to appoint Pringle’s successor. (Rules say an appointee remains in office until a successor is named.)

Sources tell the Star that Pringle’s successor is Pringle. The committee, after hearing from numerous applicants, will recommend that city council reappoint Pringle to the police board, sources say. The board — which by then will be without a chair — is expected to pick Pringle.

Cynics have decried the possibility since late last year. They wondered why Pringle was allowed to continue on the board while his term was up. They say he was kept there to back Tory in his reconstruction plan.

More alarm bells sounded when the police board made Pringle the vice-chair last January, even though his term was already up and he was in limbo. It was a clear sign that the fix was in, critics claimed.

When the Star pointed out the apparent conflict of interest and the concerns that the mayor may be manipulating the process, a senior staffer in the mayor’s office said the city clerk controls the timing of the appointments. But on the hypothetical matter of Pringle being reappointed, the staffer admitted that the “mayor is conflicted on this.”

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The seven-member police board has three provincial appointees (Marie Moliner, recently reappointed; Dhun Noria (her second term ends November 2016) and Mukherjee, whose term ends April 2016.

The city controls the remaining four seats: three councillors, including the mayor, and one civilian (Pringle).

Mukherjee’s anticipated departure is coincidental to the Pringle controversy. And it could complicate Pringle’s confirmation. Opponents might argue the police board should postpone the vote on a new chair until the province names Mukherjee’s replacement.

After nearly a decade of quiet, non-controversial chairmanship of the board, Mukherjee ran afoul of ex-chief Blair over budget excesses. He also opposed Blair’s attempt to have his contract renewed past 10 years.

Mukherjee also engendered opposition from the police association, especially after he started siding with reforms against carding. He led the board in 2014 to approve tough measures to curb excesses of carding.

The board voted that police should tell citizens of their rights when they are stopped in casual encounters where police don’t suspect criminal activity or are not investigating a crime. Police should give the citizen a receipt documenting the reason for the stop. And the chief should define the “public safety reason” for carding.

Mukherjee came under heavy criticism for bowing to pressure from Tory to back down from the 2014 position. Weeks later, both he and Tory reversed field. Mukherjee now says the 2014 board position was always the right one.

He became neutered, essentially, since December when he re-posted a meme on his Facebook page that the police association considered anti-police. Tory seemed poised to remove him as chair, but relented. Since then, critics argue, Mukherjee has had little or no power.

Since 2014, Blair has refused to implement the board’s policy curbing carding. Tory arrived at the board and took control of the file. When Tory wanted to bring in a mediator, sources say, it was he and Pringle who masterminded the deal — Mukherjee was out of town (he joined the vote via telephone) and was told about it after the deed was done.

Finally, on the vote for the new chief, Mukherjee is known to be one of two board members who voted for Sloly. After arm-twisting, all seven members came out, in public, as supporting Saunders.

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca

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