Candidates shake hands at city hall as results become official (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

MUNICIPAL ELECTION 2022

New look council table takes shape in Kamloops

Oct 16, 2022 | 12:45 AM

KAMLOOPS — A new look council will convene next month with only three incumbents sitting at the table. Bill Sarai, Mike O’Reilly and Dale Bass all secured re-election tonight, while Nancy Bepple, who previously served on council, will also be returning to city hall.

Newcomer Katie Neustaeter announced her presence at city hall Saturday evening by collecting the most votes of the 23 candidates on the ballot. She will serve as one of four brand new faces at the table. Joining Neustaeter will be Stephen Karpuk, who found that the third time is indeed the charm, as he finally got elected with 35 per cent of the vote.

“We got some work ahead of us. Looking forward to getting to it, it’s going to be a lot of hard work, some difficult decisions, some probably uncomfortable discussions but I think we can come together and make that work,” said Karpuk.

Candidates spend weeks or months campaigning on grand promises for the future of Kamloops, but now councillors like Karpuk have just one of nine votes at the table.

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“I’ve worked with a lot of teams, either with Rotary and through previous work with other organizations. I think you just come to the common ground and I think we come up with something that makes sense and serves the better whole of the community. I’m more than happy to work towards that. We will see what happens in the next four years and hopefully it’s something that everyone likes,” said Karpuk.

Incumbent Mike O’Reilly will be back at city hall as one of three returning councillors. He expects the transition to be similar to that of 2018.

“Myself, Councillor Bass and Councillor Sarai will play a bit of a leadership role not so much in what people want to do, but more procedurally and how you can actually get things done around city hall. That’s a very big learning curve, and all three of us we went through that exact same thing four years ago and we will all be stepping up to the plate to help our new teammates,” said O’Reilly.

O’Reilly noted that the new strategic plan that council will begin work on should provide insight to council priorities for the term.

“I think our Number One job as a team is to come up with our strategic plan and all nine elected officials can get behind and that will chart our path forward over the next four years,” added O’Reilly.

Karpuk noted that he believes crime-related issues will be front and centre.

“What the agenda is, I don’t know, but I think we have some stuff ahead of us that are fairly apparent. I think the business community can look forward to some support. I think safety and security are going to be first and foremost issues that we are going to address. I look forward to working with Reid Hamer-Jackson as our new mayor, we all have to do that. And team Kamloops needs to go forward again,” said Karpuk.

The new mayor and council will be sworn in on November 1 at City Hall.