Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum will not chair the Surrey Police Board until after the municipal election.
On Wednesday evening, the Surrey Police Board issued a statement saying McCallum and the board had agreed that he would not attend any board meetings for the next few months.
The chair is not allowed to step down or delegate responsibilities under the Police Act. In the event that the first chair, McCallum, is unable to attend a meeting, the board can pick a replacement chair.
“Moving forward, the board will select a chair from among themselves to conduct board business until after the municipal election,” the statement read.
Annis said in a statement that councillors must put the people of Surrey over McCallum, implying that four individuals, including her fellow councillors, are maintaining him in power. Addressing them all by name; Doug Elford, Laurie Guerra, Mandeep Nagra and Allison Patton.
Annis said the four of them “need to take a good look in the mirror and ask themselves why they continue to give Doug McCallum a free pass while they ignore what’s best for our city. Their personal loyalty should be to the city, not the mayor.”
The next civic election is coming up in October 2022, by then we may or may not have Doug McCallum as mayor. The votes will decide his fate for becoming mayor of Surrey once again.
McCallum is scheduled to stand trial on a charge of public mischief stemming from a police report accusing an advocate opposed to the city’s police transition of running over his foot in a Save-On-Foods parking lot with her vehicle.