Da Vinci's City Hall

- Season 1

(2005)

This episode and the series picks up where "Da Vinci's Inquest" left off. We see Dominic Da Vinci has moved from the halls of the city coroner's office to those of City Hall as the newly elected Mayor of Vancouver. One of his first official PR opportunities as Mayor takes place at a night out at the local Hastings Park horse racetrack. With his two aides, Sam Berger and Rita Mah, running detail duty, Da Vinci is introduced to Lloyd Manning and Roger Woo, who independent of each other have the potential to be the savior of the financially troubled racetrack as its new ...

A band of renegade police constables, led by Jan Ferris, start raiding suspected grow-ops. Da Vinci's team meets with Tom Venice, the race track owner, to discuss measures to save the track such as installing slot machines, but Da Vinci is more interested in the attractive and wealthy Billie Simms, a stable owner at the track. Zack continues his undercover work at the squat at the Watson's Building. After Zack tells them that Friedland plans to move the squat to touristy Queen Elizabeth Park, Da Vinci and Mah tell Zack to try and manipulate a move to Crab Park instead...

The Mayor proposes a drop-in center for the hookers in the fenced and gated red-light district for their health and safety - they would be required to go there following any business transaction in the district. He now needs to sell the concept to everyone, the biggest hurdle being Jacobs. However Da Vinci, Mah and Berger don't see it as an issue as they can get rid of the chief under the ploy of an early performance review tied to budget overruns in the department. Da Vinci learns it may be financially costly as they may need to buy-out the chief's contract. Jacobs ...

The Red Light District opens relatively smoothly, despite both the johns and the girls being wary about the openness. Businesses in the area are starting to rally against it, the business coalition led by Mina Basra. Klotchko and Sweeney get tipped that the city is doing a search for a new police chief. The city starts their interviews and get valuable first hand information on the value and effectiveness of cross training. There seems to be unofficial cooperation happening already with the fire department posting inspection notices on suspected grow-ops, which has ...

Both sides continue gathering their support on the cross training issue. The side against, led by Jacobs and Klotchko, are spreading the word amongst their and the fire department's union chiefs. They're all saying that there are some senior people amongst their ranks who are in favor of crossing training, and it's those people who have to go. These people include Komori and perhaps Parmir. And although Jacobs has issued a directive to his constables not to support the fire department when they post inspection notices on suspected grow-ops, some constables are ...

The investigation of the grow-op deaths gets under way. Jacobs, in an effort to distance the police department from the killings, calls in the Organized Crime Unit, stating that it is their jurisdiction since it is purported that a major drug organization is involved. This is only one area of disagreement as Chick, the lead investigator, states that the grow-op involved was a "Mom and Pop" operation. The other major disagreement is between Ferris, Winters, by association the police department and the fire department. Ferris and Winters emphatically state that they saw...

The issue of the fire inspection notice at the grow-op site comes into question. Da Vinci thinks it a little too convenient that one was found after a series of seasoned investigators didn't find it in their initial walk-through. Winters admits in confidence to Klotchko that she is unsure that a notice was at the scene. And even Jacobs admits he is skeptical. Klotchko tries to manage the situation internally, seeming to support Ferris in whatever she needs, while not allowing her back to work. He will not even allow her to attend Tremaine's funeral. The fire and ...

The OCU's report on the grow-op shooting is released, the report stating that there was a fire department inspection notice posted which was a major cause of the outcome. Most officials are not happy with the report findings and question the accuracy of the report, these including Da Vinci, Savoy, Leary, Komori, Welles and Forrest. Although Jacobs is satisfied, he still needs to carefully spin the report findings. He and Klotchko decide to lay whatever police blame on Ferris' shoulders. But Ferris decides she is not going away, so Klotchko needs to do something to ...

Relations between the police department and fire & rescue continue to be strained. The latest incident involves a suicide jumper, each side accusing that the other was at fault for possibly not preventing the death. Kaspar, the police complaints commissioner, has decided to pursue fire & rescue's complaint regarding the grow-op shooting. Da Vinci warns Kaspar, being part of the RCMP which has in the past had strained relations with the Vancouver Police Department, that the investigation should be impartial. Welles is satisfied that the complaint is moving forward and ...

Da Vinci is dealing with the fall-out from the homicide in the red light district, the homicide taking place during the Prime Minister's tour. Despite the Prime Minister still giving Da Vinci his support in private, it seems that opposition to the red zone is mounting, connecting the death to the zone itself. The attention is international, and some of Da Vinci's councilors don't want to see the City become an international laughing stock. Mina Basra and the wife of the deceased decide to sue the city over the incident, stating that it would not have happened if the ...

Da Vinci meets with an old buddy from his police days, Nelson Horner, who has been doing some work for the Solicitor General's office. He gives Da Vinci a head's up that he is "being set up to take a big hit" due to the Mayor's controversial policies, further fueled by the murder in the red light district. This action stems from a war between the SG's office and the Attorney General's office and control of the police force. They both suspect that Jacobs has his fingers in the mix somewhere. Immediately following, Berger gets a call from Feeney of the SG's office for a...

Four on-going story-lines take a back seat in this episode. First, Curtis approaches all the witnesses in the Dubreau case to leave quietly, quickly and semi-permanently to Mexico, all to be paid by Dubreau. These witnesses include Zappata (who agrees), Mason (who shuns Curtis and continues to cooperate with Leary) and Messner (who is adamant about not running away, but vows not to discredit Dubreau). Second, Klotchko continues his sandbagging of the grow-op constables, especially of Ferris. After Matthews in Internal interviews the three constables, she recommends ...

Da Vinci greases the wheels on all sides: he lays down the law with both the police and fire union reps using the tactic of the extra manpower on the books, and discusses with Leary the progress in his investigation on the grow-op shooting. On the down side, Jacobs has a meeting with the Solicitor General about the relationship with the Police Board and Da Vinci, the SG laying down the law with Da Vinci on this matter. However some unexpected good news for Da Vinci comes via Lou in the coroner's investigation: he has found evidence that the grow-op site was violated ...