“If Things Don’t Change, The Next Four Months At Surrey City Council Will Be Wasted”!

Surrey council hit rock bottom Monday evening, it’s completely dysfunctional, said ouncillor Linda Annis. This was her summation after Monday night’s council meeting was adjourned after only seven minutes amid safety concerns when the mayor, various councillors, and an agitated audience created a chaotic scene in the council chamber.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

SURREY – Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis says city council has “hit rock bottom” and “division and dysfunction” have taken over. 

This was her summation after Monday night’s council meeting was adjourned after only seven minutes amid safety concerns when the mayor, various councillors, and an agitated audience created a chaotic scene in the council chamber.

“Councillors were calling for the mayor to resign over his criminal charges, the mayor was having none of it, and the public audience’s contempt for Doug McCallum just boiled over,” said Annis. “As a result, city staff moved the mayor and all of the councillors to safer spaces and the meeting was adjourned to Wednesday. City council meetings under Doug McCallum have been bad for many months, but this is the worse I’ve seen. People are fed up, the mayor continues with his my-way-or-the-highway approach, and frankly it’s reached the boiling point. As a result, council under Doug McCallum has become quite dysfunctional. Respect, consensus, and simple good manners have gone out the window.”

Annis said she is disappointed in the mayor’s and public’s reaction to the calls for him to resign, but she is not surprised.

“People in Surrey are fed up, and the mayor is completely tone deaf when it comes to the community and how people are feeling,” added Annis. “That said, everyone at the meeting tonight, mayor, councillors and the community have to step back and see what this is doing to our meetings and to our city. There’s plenty of blame to go around on a night like this, but if Surrey residents were watching this tonight they would be shaking their heads and wondering how our city can run now until election day on October 15. It was an embarrassing night for our city and its taxpayers.”

Things didn’t improve Tuesday even as Mayor brought in his cronies to fill the anti-McCallum crew and Annis added that between the mayor’s approach and politically-motivated protesters, Surrey residents are being short changed and the work of city hall is jeopardized.

Annis said “things definitely have to change at city hall” or the next four months are going to be a costly waste of time that jeopardizes the real work of city council, and certainly damages Surrey’s reputation.

“I know how hard mayors like Dianne Watts, Linda Hepner and Bob Bose worked to build up the reputation of our city, and right now I think all their hard work is being dismantled by the mayor and politically staged protests,” Annis added. “Dragging the upcoming election campaign into city council chambers is like playing with fire and it needs to stop. The people of Surrey are being short changed by all of these theatrics, some of which we saw again last night. The mayor’s behaviour is definitely not leadership. These protests, which are being orchestrated as political spectacles, also deserve to be called out for what they are and the damage they do.”

“The work of the city needs to get done, the mayor and his criminal charges are a huge distraction, and so are these well-oiled and stage-managed demonstrations,” added Annis. “Like the people of Surrey, I don’t like it, and as a councillor I’m angry that the people’s business is being treated this way. Right about now, we definitely need more adults in this room.”

Annis said moving council’s regular Monday meeting to Wednesday cost thousands of tax dollars and that’s not fair to the residents of Surrey. The mayor had the public sit outside the council chamber during last night’s meeting and admitted speakers only one at a time. In the end, council voted to consider a bylaw at the next council meeting that would allow council to hold virtually meetings going forward at its discretion. 

“I voted against that,” said Annis. “This paints a very sad picture of the city right now. Excluding the city’s taxpayers from speaking in person at public meetings is absolutely the wrong way to treat our residents and our democracy. Between the mayor’s disregard for Surrey residents, and the distractions created by the kinds of protests we’ve seen this week, Surrey City Hall isn’t looking or feeling good right about now. The mayor, the protesters and the people behind these politically-motivated disruptions need to stop and apologize to Surrey voters and taxpayers. Like Surrey voters, I can’t wait for October 15 so we can clear the air and get this city back on track.”