The mayor-elect for Surrey, B.C., says has reiterated her campaign pledge to make current Mayor Doug McCallum pay his own legal fees amid his trial for public mischief.
As McCallum’s trial started on Monday, his soon-to-be successor Brenda Locke said in an interview that taxpayers should not be on the hook.
“So far, they have been,” Locke told Global News. “As soon as I got elected, actually within days, I instructed staff to stop paying any further legal bills for Doug McCallum, and that now moving forward, they will not be paid by the taxpayer.”
She said she has also asked city staff to seek outside legal advice on how to recoup taxpayer money already spent.
When asked how much money that actually is, Locke said she could not share that information due to legal advice.
“I can’t release the number but what I can tell you is it’s significant,” she said.
“The public was loud and clear. They do not want to pay for Mr. McCallum’s legal fees for public mischief.”
Global News has reached out to McCallum for a response.
In December 2021, shortly after he was charged, the city said taxpayers would cover his fees, citing its indemnification bylaw, which applies to all employees, officers and council members.
“The city will indemnify its municipal officials against payment of amounts required or incurred to defend an action, prosecution or claim brought against a municipal official in connection with the exercise or intended exercise of the person’s powers or the performance or intended performance of the person’s duties or functions including satisfaction of a judgment, award or penalty imposed in relation to the foregoing,” the bylaw says.
John Alexander, a lawyer with the firm Cox Taylor in Victoria, said that legislation is very specific.
“It says that indemnification means a payment to defend a claim or a prosecution, but only in connection with that person’s exercise of their powers or the performance of their duties,” he said.
There lies the crux of the legal fee payment issue, as McCallum has previously said he was operating as mayor at the time of the incident, while others say he was on personal time.
— with files from Simon Little