Surrey Coun. Jack Hundial has quit the mayor’s Safe Surrey Coalition.
He’s the third councillor to do so after Steven Pettigrew left in May, followed by Brenda Locke last month.
In a release, Hundial said a lack of community input and the dissolution of the public safety committee were the “final straw.”
WATCH: Surrey city councillor Jack Hundial is calling it quits with Mayor Doug McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coaltion
“My main priority is working towards ensuring a safer Surrey for everyone,” Hundial said in a statement. “We can make it happen, but it should be a community project, with community input.”
On Monday, Mayor Doug McCallum announced he was dissolving the city’s public safety committee during a meeting and replacing it with an interim committee focused on police transition instead.
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The interim committee is supposed to be in place for three to six months.
Earlier in the week, Locke told Global News that she was “blindsided” by the move.
“The mayor is not a collegial or collaborative person,” Locke said Thursday following Hundial’s departure from the Safe Surrey Coalition. “I don’t believe he knows how to manage a council. He doesn’t believe in democracy, communication or transparency,” Locke said Thursday.
Hundial said there’s no guarantee the community will be safer with the mayor’s police transition plan and his main priority is working towards a safer Surrey for everyone.
In a statement issued Thursday morning, McCallum said the Safe Surrey Coalition’s majority on council is “solid and strongly united.”
“I can assure you the Safe Surrey Coalition is now even more focused and energized to deliver on what we promised to the voters of Surrey.”
WATCH (June 25, 2019): Tensions boil over at Surrey council meeting
The recent resignations come amid controversy over the mayor’s plan to switch from the Surrey RCMP to a municipal police force.
Hundial will now sit as an independent councillor.
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