Surrey’s aging Mayor Doug McCallum, aka Doug Paaji, has helped create a solid four member opposition of Linda Annis, Jack Hundial, Steven Pettigrew, and Brenda Locke, who issued a joint statement this week in standing up to McCallum’s old style of “My Way Or The Highway” governance. The Councillors expressed some serious concerns about the mayor and the expensive and less safe police force he wants to ram down the throat of Surrey residents.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

SURREY – Surrey’s aging mayor Doug McCallum, aka Doug Paaji, has helped create a solid four member opposition of Linda Annis, Jack Hundial, Steven Pettigrew, and Brenda Locke, who issued a joint statement this week in standing up to McCallum’s old style of “My Way Or The Highway” governance.

The four councillors said: “At the initial meeting, November 5, 2018, of this council we all voted to move towards a Surrey Police Force. The underlying assumption was that it would make Surrey a safer community for our residents. We did not expect the Police Transition Plan to be developed behind closed doors and without our advice or input.”

The Councillors expressed some serious concerns about the mayor and the expensive and less safe police force he wants to ram down the throat of Surrey residents.

Here are their concerns:

* The Mayor’s artificial deadline for the transition is extremely challenging, if not impossible.

* Our citizens and community organizations were not engaged in this process in any meaningful way – the Public Consultation & Survey was misleading.

* The rushed nature of the Police Transition Plan caused it to miss some vital public safety concerns.

* The Police Transition Plan actually calls for fewer police officers in Surrey.

* There is no clear indication of the capital cost of this transition.

* All our research indicates that the increased operating costs for a City Police Department will be much higher than the suggested 10%.

* Human Resource recruitment of 805 police officers will be difficult, if not impossible in the rushed timeline proposed.

They said the risk that this transition will make Surrey a less safe community is just too high. Our primary duty to the citizens is effective public safety.

“Our citizens deserve to be heard and feel safe. The Mayor’s Transition Report does not measure up,” they said in a joint press release. “Together we will continue to support the citizens of Surrey and work towards a safer community for all. We are committed to working with each and every councillor. We will never pass the opportunity to do the right thing. We just want the best police for Surrey.”

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While they oppose the mayor’s plan, Locke said the councillors wants to make it clear that they aren’t necessarily for or against the RCMP or a municipal force.

 “We want the best police force for Surrey, the best police force for the citizens of Surrey, and the best police force that the citizens can afford,” she tells NEWS 1130. “The current police plan that the mayor is proposing just does not make Surrey safer, it’s not a good plan for Surrey.”

Locke, Hundial, and Pettigrew — all former Safe Surrey Coalition members — left the mayor’s party in recent months over tensions mostly surrounding the police transition process.

Annis, a Surrey First councillor, has been vocal about the lack of public consultation on a new force.

The police transition report has not yet been approved by the province. It’s currently with B.C.’s safety minister.