(Image credit: CFJC Today/File photo).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Turning a City council meeting into a complete gong show

Feb 1, 2023 | 4:59 AM

A GONG SHOW. A circus. A comedy of errors.

Those are some of the ways to describe Tuesday’s Kamloops City council meeting. It was painful to watch, all four and a half hours of it, not counting the public hearing that followed.

The action revolved around a simple motion presented by Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson asking for a review and potential relocation of 48 Victoria St. West, the storage facility used by homeless folks.

Under public inquiries on the agenda, several citizens spoke on it, clearly demonstrating the division between those who put the interests of the homeless first, and those who live the nightmare of constant criminal activity that has come with the concentration of several housing facilities and services on the street.

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Then, councillors got into the mayor’s motion and things went rapidly downhill. Some insisted the situation requires a major planning exercise on what to do with the entire street rather than just the one address.

They could have dealt with the motion on 48 Victoria St. W., then considered the bigger picture as a separate item. Instead, they muddled it all together, with amendments and attempted amendments.

One asked if expanding the study to the entire street would put the mayor in a conflict of interest because of his business.

Corporate officer Maria Mazzotta further confused the situation by contradicting earlier advice from CAO Dave Trawin that the mayor wasn’t in a conflict over 48 Vic St. West. He might still be in a perceived conflict, she said. This, after previously deferring to Trawin on the conflict question.

Coun. Mike O’Reilly mused about whether that meant the mayor shouldn’t even be making a motion. Coun. Katie Neustaeter waxed on about “ethics” and “textbook” conflict.

The mayor obligingly recused himself from the meeting, twice. The upshot of it all was that the matter will be punted to a committee.

The lesson is, why make a decision when you can procrastinate, complicate and nitpick?

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, former TNRD director and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.