Calgary city council will hold a special meeting on Tuesday related to the Coun. Sean Chu being on the deputy mayor schedule in two upcoming months.
A special meeting of council was posted to the City of Calgary website, with the purpose noted as a reconsideration of the deputy mayor roster for December 2022 and January – December 2023. There is also a second item on the agenda with Calgary Police Commissions 1997 review as the subject matter. It’s unclear what will be discussed as a part of that item as it’s a verbal item only.
That investigation involved Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu and his encounters with a minor while he was a member of the Calgary Police Service.
Coun. Chu is slated to the be deputy mayor next month. He’s also scheduled to be the deputy mayor in May 2023. The reconsideration may not fully remove Chu from a role as deputy mayor. It may be to ensure there’s no conflict with specific events.
This all comes as there’s mounting pressure for Calgary city council to do more to censure Coun. Chu, particularly with the emergence of a social media account that is publishing further accounts of Chu’s involvement with a minor.
Chu published a statement to social media on Monday afternoon regarding some of the statements being made.
Here’s a link to our October 21, 2021 story after Coun. Chu met with media that day.
After he was prevented from sitting on board, committees and commissions (BCCs) during last year’s organizational meeting, Chu was invited back to sit on BCCs. Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra was the lone councillor to vote against this year’s BCC appointments.
Tough to continue sanctions: Mayor Gondek
Mayor Jyoti Gondek, who has in the past said City Council is hamstrung by limitation on dealing with Coun. Chu, said recently that it wasn’t right for him to sit on council, be paid like a councillor and not have to do the work of a councillor.
“We are in a position where we have been dammed by the public for not doing anything about this situation, where you have a councillor who’s been found to have had inappropriate sexual relations with a child, and we can’t remove him,” she said in the LWC member exclusive Mayor and Me podcast.
“We can’t remove him. We can’t stop him from performing his duties, because according to the legislation, he has to be allowed to do that.
“It seems unreasonable that this member of council can sit out everything and do absolutely nothing, and still be a sitting member of council. We’ve wrestled with this.”
The deputy mayor position presides over meetings when the mayor is not in attendance. The position also acts as an emissary for the mayor at public functions.
