Bring back Surrey’s public safety committee: councillor Linda Annis
Surrey: Councillor Linda Annis wants Surrey to bring back the city’s long-standing Public Safety
Committee which the mayor dissolved in July 2019, when he created a politically slanted interim police transition advisory committee that has never met. “City council’s Public Safety Committee was created in 2003 by Mayor Dianne Watts and looked at much more than policing,” said
Annis. “The Public Safety Committee was made up of all councillors and dealt with policing, firefighting, emergency services and a broad range of public safety issues and related programs. The so-called police transition advisory committee is made up of the mayor and his four Safe Surrey councillors, only deals with police transition, and as far as I know, has never met.”
At last night’s city council meeting, Annis tabled a notice of motion that the Public Safety Committee be reinstated at the next council meeting on Monday, March 9. “The Public Safety Committee of council served a valuable purpose and gave the community a forum for important community safety issues that included police, fire and emergency services,” added Annis. “It also ensured that our city was ready for any public emergency. The mayor and his councillors have created a committee that has no transparency. It never meets. It has no agenda, no public meetings, no minutes and no plan. Like the proposed transition to a local police department, which includes fewer officers than we have today, this invisible committee created by the mayor does nothing to improve public safety.”