There was no decision Friday on the controversial police budget.

The expected showdown between London city council and the Police Services Board didn’t happen as the decision on the budget was delayed.

After three hours of wrangling and nine motions, the decision was put off until next month.

The motions ranged from accepting the 4.4 per cent increase (bringing the police budget to about $94 million), to holding the line at zero.

Some council members were clearly frustrated.

“If you support this, a $250,000 drop in this budget of $90 million, is a joke," said Branscome, who wanted to hold the line on the police budget, even at the risk of ending up before the civilian commission on policing.

“Somebody has to have the courage to stand up and say, ‘We can't afford them anymore.’"

But council was warned repeatedly that the commission would likely find the city is actually underserviced and would order more hires.

“They could actually turn around and say, ‘You need 10 more, 20 more or the 40 we are short and we are stuck with that bill,’” Councillor Denise Brown said.

It's the challenge the city faces each year as it’s forced to approve a budget councillors effectively have no control over.

"We are given the authority, on the one hand, on behalf of the people of London to make a decision. But in a very real sense, we're just a paper tiger,” Councillor Paul Van Meerbergen said.

London police Chief Brad Duncan said with 95 per cent of the budget increase going to salary increases that he is bound by, his hands are tied as well.

“There is no money hidden within the service,” he said. “Ninety-five per cent of the increase is human resources and I'm conjoined with council in understanding that as we're going forward the salaries and wages in the public sector are really the elephant in the room and we are trying to wrestle with that."

The Police Services Board is leading the charge to change the way collective bargaining takes place - calling for a coordinated bargaining approach across the province and preventing bargaining units from driving up wages and benefits.

"We're open to any type of negotiations at bargaining. It's a clean slate at bargaining, where anything that gets on the table, we're willing to discuss,” said Rick Robson of the London Police Association.

Councillor Dale Henderson was not in attendance, but as a fiscal conservative, he likely would have swung one of those tie votes resulting in further cuts to the police budget. 

Final approval of the budget is slated for February 27.