KAMLOOPS — The Mayor of Kamloops has confirmed, now that a by-election is inevitable, he will resign his position.
Peter Milobar was elected to represent Kamloops-North Thompson in the May 9 provincial vote.
While he initially intended to take an unpaid leave of absence for the remainder of 2017 to avert a by-election, that point was made moot when Councillor Marg Spina tendered her resignation.
“I fully support (Spina’s) decision to resign and focus on her friends and family, and health,” said Milobar.
“That being said, if that means that there will be a by-election anyways I’ve said all along you can’t do both jobs anyways. I see no harm in resigning the mayors seat, and linking it up with that so that there is a by-election for the mayor at the same time.”
Spina’s resignation is effective June 30, and Milobar says he will make his resignation effective on that date as well.
“My unpaid leave takes effect tomorrow (June 1). I’ll reconfirm with staff what dates work best in terms of my official resignation. Essentially, tomorrow on I will not be doing the function of mayor. I just want to make sure the dates don’t cause some other weird procedural quirk. At a minimum it will be June 30, to sync up with Councillor Spina.”
That leaves two positions open for the by-election, and a third may come open if Councillor Ken Christian resigns to run for the mayor’s chair.
Deputy Mayor Arjun Singh says the by-election will likely take place around the end of September.
