Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke is distancing herself from the media maelstrom that\u2019s followed the Surrey Police Board\u2019s ouster of founding Surrey Police Service\u2019s chief constable Norm Lipinski earlier this week and subsequent resignation of the board\u2019s chairman and another director.<\/p>\n
Her political rivals are slamming her as a notorious intellectual author of Lipinski\u2019s departure. Former mayor Doug McCallum, who is again seeking the mayor\u2019s chair with his Safe Surrey Coalition, accused Locke of staging a \u201ccoup\u201d on the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in an election cycle so some people are going to say whatever they want,\u201d Locke sighed. \u201cI can\u2019t stop that. The reality is the Province appoints the board. Some of the members of the board I have never met. If they walked into this room I wouldn\u2019t know them. But the board is appointed by the Province; they have to do the work that they have to do, they made the decision they made, it\u2019s not something that I\u2019m involved in \u2013 it is entirely their decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do get it, I do understand people have questions,\u201d she told the Now-Leader on Friday. \u201cI do to. But that\u2019s up to the board. It will all come out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how she views the police board firing a chief without the chairman\u2019s prior knowledge of the vote, and not being at the meeting, as former chairman Harley Chappell claimed before resigning from his post, Locke replied that \u201cit\u2019s a professional board and they\u2019re going to do their work, and you know it\u2019s always difficult to get everybody to any meeting, but I have no comment to make about that. I don\u2019t know all of the information about that. But I do trust this board; I think they\u2019re a board that is professional and they made a decision based on the information they had. I don\u2019t have that information, they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locke said the board should be given the benefit of the doubt that it will \u201ccome out and tell us what happened at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n
She noted it\u2019s an HR issue and \u201ceverybody knows HR issues are dealt with in a pretty discreet way and they have to use discretion. I don\u2019t know all the information. I have questions like you, and I am hopeful there is a plan and I\u2019m sure there is because I know they want to have a safe city, I know the residents want a safe city and I sure as heck want a safe city so I will be paying attention to what happens in the coming week or so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know all the details of everything so I think we have to give the board some time to make all those decisions that they can available to the public. I certainly hope that\u2019s soon, because you know, I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locke is well aware of the optics. After all, it\u2019s lonely at the top, the buck stops at the big desk, etcetera. However, she notes that a police board in any city operates at an arm\u2019s length from city hall \u201cso we don\u2019t have the option to have say-so on what the board is doing, it\u2019s up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the Police Act is \u201cvery clear\u201d about such things. \u201cIt used to be that the mayor had a seat at the table, that isn\u2019t even the case anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for her political rivals, she remarked, \u201cit\u2019s politics. I\u2019ll let them make the decision how they want to conduct themselves in an election and I don\u2019t conduct myself that way and that\u2019s all I\u2019ll say about it. That\u2019s their decision to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
She re-iterated Lipinski\u2019s ouster is an HR issue and insisted \u201cI\u2019m not involved in any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Considering the chief was let go eight months into a renewed ongoing contract, there will likely be a hefty severance for taxpayers to bear. \u201cFrom my perspective, the board made a decision, the board is responsible for a budget and that is the budget the previous board outlined to us and so we gave them that budget and that\u2019s the money that they have and so it\u2019s up to them to make those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meantime, a second Surrey Police Board director, James Carwana, resigned in as many days in the wake of Lipinski\u2019s ouster on June 1. Harley Chappell, former chairman of the board, resigned on June 2.<\/p>\n
McCallum made haste to slam Locke.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do not blow up your police leadership in the middle of an extortion crisis,\u201d he said. \u201cSurrey needed stability. Brenda Locke handed it chaos, and every criminal in this region just got the message that our police are leaderless.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCallum charged Locke with staging a \u201ccoup.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe stacked the board with her loyalists. She held a secret meeting. She fired the chief without telling the chair. This is not governance. This is sabotage. This is a coup. And Brenda Locke just put the safety of every Surrey family at risk because she is afraid of losing in October,\u201d McCallum said.<\/p>\n
The former mayor said \u201cthis is not a coincidence. That is a takeover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councillor Rob Stutt is acting chairman until the board selects a new one.<\/p>\n
Stutt declined to reveal to the Now-Leader on Friday the rationale for parting ways with Lipinski.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you know I\u2019m wearing two hats here and I\u2019m sure that you respect that I can\u2019t discuss HR issues. I\u2019m going to stick by the ethics of respecting the nature of this HR issue,\u201d Stutt said. \u201cI\u2019m well aware that my political rivals have much to say but you know, the future will be what it is and the board has chosen to go in a new direction and I believe they have the best interests of the residents, visitors of Surrey at heart and I have faith in that decision and I have faith in the police board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides Stutt, Hanne Madsen, Jaswinder Sidhu, George Duncan, Archie Johnston, Larry Thomas and Perm Jawanda are still on the board. Its next meeting is set for June 17.<\/p>\n
In March the Lieutenant Governor appointed five new provincial members under section 23(1)(c) of the Police Act to the Surrey police board, joining Chappell, provincial appointee Carwana, and Surrey council appointees Johnston and Stutt.<\/p>\n
Asked why Lipinski was fired Jason Kuzminski, executive director of the board, issued a statement attributed to Madsen, on its \u201cLeadership Transition Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate Norm Lipinski\u2019s service to SPS and his support steering the Surrey Policing Transition for more than five years,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cUltimately, the Board made the decision that it needed a new leader to support the transition into this next phase of SPS\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Chief Constable Todd Matsumoto is the interim police chief while the board recruits a new chief with information concerning that process to be shared \u201cin the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meantime, here\u2019s a letter Lipinski sent to members of the Surrey Police Union after he was \u201cterminated without cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
Subject: Re: Message to Members<\/p>\n
To the Members of the Surrey Police Service,<\/p>\n
On my first day back from vacation, I was called into a meeting with the Police Board and informed that my employment was being terminated without cause.<\/p>\n
While this is not the way I hoped my time with the Surrey Police Service would come to an end, I leave with immense pride in what we have accomplished together under extraordinarily challenging circumstances.<\/p>\n
Building a new police service from the ground up and reaching \u201cPolice of Jurisdiction\u201d status is, without question, the proudest achievement of my 48 years in policing. That milestone was only possible because of the professionalism, dedication, and resilience demonstrated by every member of this organization.<\/p>\n
As I look back on our journey, I don\u2019t focus on the numbers, the projects, or the many remarkable achievements \u2013 I think about the people. The many moments our team came together to solve difficult problems with courage and creativity. Those are the memories that will stay with me.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one thing I have learned, it\u2019s that organizations don\u2019t succeed because of structures alone \u2013 they succeed because of the people who care about one another.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been an honour to serve alongside of you and I am grateful for the partnerships we built, the laughs we shared, and the great policing service we provide.<\/p>\n
It has truly been the privilege of a lifetime.<\/p>\n
Norm Lipinski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke is distancing herself from the media maelstrom that\u2019s followed the Surrey Police Board\u2019s ouster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-719457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}