Doug McCallum must feel like hiding under his bed.
That is, if there’s any room underneath, what with Councillors Doug Elford, Laurie Guerra, Allison Patton and Mandeep Nagra already down there, counting the dust bunnies.
Let’s keep score. These five council members on Monday voted in what is proving to be a spectacularly unpopular city budget 2020 that includes – rather, does not include – the hiring of more police officers, firefighters, and all sorts of other good stuff to pave the way for what may prove to be the Safe Surrey Coalition’s Alamo – the plan to replace the Surrey RCMP with a made-in-the-city police force.
A typically taciturn Officer in Charge of the Surrey RCMP then fires off a biting statement to the press on this state of affairs, followed by the Surrey Board of Trade seeking provincial government intervention and a Surrey MP then calling for a city referendum on the matter.
SEE ALSO: Safe Surrey councillors break silence after biting tongues at heated budget meetings
What a week.
During that fateful Monday night council meeting, Councillor Steven Pettigrew challenged the five to defend their approval of the budget – twice – in chambers. Their lips were zipped.
After the dust settled, Guerra told the Now-Leader Pettigrew was “completely out of line.”
For what? Asking that she and her colleagues deign to dignify the public with an explanation as to why they were voting the way they did, in a public meeting, concerning matters of grave public interest, namely safety on our streets and in our homes?
And frankly, Elford’s excuse for not defending the way he voted is feeble.
“I was a little worried about some of the people there as well,” he explained.“They weren’t inappropriate, but there could potentially be an issue there.”
Issue indeed.
Perhaps an appointment with a chiropractor is in order, to get that spine checked.
– Now-Leader
edit@surreynowleader.com
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