Cobourg votes before it knows as local police face forensic audit
Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty and Councillor Adam Bureau approved a 20.5% police budget hike without the numbers, never told the public that reports were missing — and are now named in the mayor’s Ombudsman complaint.
Two million dollars over budget and a record 20.5% increase — that’s the 2026 state of the Cobourg Police Service under the noses of the two people who were supposed to be watching the books. Now, the same two people are asking Cobourg voters to promote them.
Advance polls are open in Ontario’s “Feel Good Town,” and Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty is running for mayor while Councillor Adam Bureau is running for deputy mayor. They are also the only two elected representatives on the Cobourg Police Service Board — the same board that, on Thanksgiving Sunday, announced it had referred its own finances to Ontario’s Inspectorate of Policing, consulted the OPP and begun moving toward a forensic audit.
A forensic audit isn’t a routine review. It’s an investigation into potential fraud, misuse of funds or financial irregularities.
The $1.6-million increase was approved by Beatty and Bureau in October 2025. Council sent it back in November, but the board returned it unchanged.
According to the board’s own account, its finance committee had repeatedly requested financial reports from the previous senior administration, to no avail. So the board couldn’t get its own numbers, and still approved a 20.5% increase? Not once did it tell the public, and the mayor claims that wasn’t shared with the rest of council, either.
Chief Chris Leather, who started June 1, said that the review that uncovered “unexplained expenditures” dating back to 2023 began in July at his recommendation.
Beatty and Bureau were appointed to the board in December 2022. That’s three and a half years of oversight, and a review that only started once the old administration was gone and a new chief asked for one.
The public record is equally unflattering. On August 26, Mayor Lucas Cleveland moved for an independent line-by-line review of police spending, but there was no seconder and thus, no debate. Despite both board members being at the table, neither spoke up to say a review was already underway.
The board’s first public word came 14 days later, with no mention of the discrepancies, missing reports, the Inspectorate or the OPP. Council and the town treasurer learned of the referral on October 11 — two days before the mayor’s special meeting. That Tuesday meeting was supposed to be about the town’s financial health. Instead, it collapsed into personal attacks on the record, with the mayor and deputy mayor trading accusations.
CAO Tracey Vaughan told council she has been flagging financial concerns since early in her 2020 tenure, some in closed session, and that at least some recommendations “have not been implemented.”
The next day, Cleveland filed a complaint with the Ontario Ombudsman alleging serial meetings — councillors coordinating motions and amendments outside public session while excluding one member: him.
Within the last 15 months, the Ombudsman has ruled against Timmins, Frontenac Islands and Ramara on exactly this. Cleveland says this one was “led by Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty and Councillor Adam Bureau.”
When attempted to be contacted for comment, both declined.
Chief Leather confirmed the audit firm hasn’t been hired yet and that three estimates are on the table, with a final report expected early next year.
With voting in the municipal election set to close October 26, Cobourg taxpayers will vote first and find out later.
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