Image Credit: Mel Rothenburger/ File

By Mel Rothenburger

Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Anatomy of how council formed a ‘unified team’ against the mayor

May 27, 2023 | 6:43 AM

‘PUSHY REPORTERS” and showing a united front against Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson were priority concerns of City councillors in the early hours of the now-months long committee mess.

That’s the picture painted in private communications obtained through Freedom of Information applications filed by the Armchair Mayor. The latest chapter in the saga of the committees will play out this coming Tuesday at a regular council meeting but details of behind-the-scenes maneuvering in March provide insights to how it all came about.

As we know now, Hamer-Jackson asked his executive assistant Chrissy Cossentine on March 16 to email members of council with a new list he’d drawn up of committee membership. Very shortly after the emails went out at 12:19 p.m. that day, the list had been passed along to media without his permission, and councillors were internally expressing their concerns.

“Is this a public document,” deputy mayor Kelly Hall asked in an email at 12:34, just 15 minutes after the mayor’s email was sent. “I see the media having a hay day with these changes to standing committees.”

Indeed they did. Hamer-Jackson was suddenly in big demand by reporters looking for comment. Chief administrative officer David Trawin and corporate officer Maria Mazzotta were also being peppered with questions both from councillors and reporters about the authority of the mayor and the role of committees. With respect to media inquiries, Trawin assured councillors he had “not responded at all in what my feelings are.”

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Shortly after that, Mazzotta informed councillors and the mayor that Hamer-Jackson did have the authority to establish standing committees and appoint their members.

The mayor, concerned about the leak, texted Trawin, saying, “Hi David someone on council must have leaked the standing committee list to the media as I am getting calls and they even have the list. Do you know who this could be. Thanks Reid.”

Trawin replied, “Have ideas but nothing concrete.”

Councillors were already talking to each other by text and email about what to do about Hamer-Jackson’s committee restructuring, which included removing some councillors as chairs and adding members of the public, and about some of the things he was saying to reporters.

“Is this a public document now?” Karpuk queried councillors and staff. “Does the media have it? I want to be prepared to say no comment if needed.”

Councillors Katie Neustaeter and Dale Bass exchanged ideas on a public statement about the situation. Neustaeter said the statement should say that “no member of council ever expressed that we are overwhelmed or wanted a decreased workload. We have been effectively working through the committee structure on issues related to our strategic plan, regular city business, and issues brought forward by the community. I think we should say that it’s inappropriate to hand pick individuals who worked on campaigns and believe an equitable application process should exist if a new committee structure is implemented. Equal opportunity. And concerns around confidentiality.”

Coun. Bill Sarai suggested that “everyone reach out to Acacia and request you don’t want to sit at his table. Unless you do want to sit at his table,” an apparent reference to Chamber of Commerce executive director Acacia Pangilinan and that evening’s AGM at which Hamer-Jackson was scheduled to speak along with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kúkpi7 Rosanne Casimir.

“I’m going to suggest out (sic) table have no knives,” commented Bass in an apparent quip.

Coun. Kelly Hall cautioned “…media r going to be all over us at the dinner tonight to (sic) let’s all be singing from the same sheet K.”

To which Sarai suggested saying, “Ask the mayor is what we say tonite, We know as much as you do. First time we saw this document.”

Discussion of the proposed united public statement continued, with various councillors chiming in with ideas, such as “Themes: Councillors are taking the difficult but necessary steps to ensure accountability of its elected official to Kamloopsians” and “The mayor did not consult with any councillors and on his own decided to relieve committee chairs of what he called a heavy workload. The mayor has continued to refuse to work with council…”

As the councillors were working to come up with their statement, Karpuk asked about holding a special council meeting the following Tuesday, as a regular meeting wasn’t scheduled that week. Bass emailed Hamer-Jackson, with copies to Trawin, council and Mazzotta: “Councillors Stephen Karpuk and Dale Bass wish to hold a special council meeting Tuesday, March 22 to review terms of reference for council standing committees.”

That fulfilled the statutory requirement under which at least two members of council must call for a special meeting before it can be held, except the Tuesday was actually March 21, so that little detail had to be corrected.

The chamber dinner came and went, and Neustaeter polished up the text of the councillors’ statement well after midnight. At 1:51 a.m., she sent it out to fellow councillors marked “Private and Confidential.”

She’d timed the statement out at three and a half minutes. “Seeing as the Mayor had oodles of minutes of press coverage yesterday, this does not seem like an unreasonable length of time to take for our counterpoints, rationale, and explanation of next steps.”

Discussion continued early next morning along with much mutual congratulation. “Super message,” said Bass. “Well done,” said Nancy Bepple. “Much thanks for making our team even more united,” commented Sarai. “Stellar press release, well written!!” enthused Margot Middleton. “We stand together!!” “First off wow… great job. What a unified team,” added Kelly Hall.

However, some of Neustaeter’s draft was deleted but we don’t know what because the City’s FOI department blacked it out in the documents it released, justifying the redaction as “policy advice/ recommendations.”

Whatever it was that was censored from the FOI release, Karpuk was satisfied with the changes, saying “I do not want any grandstanding, just the facts…”

There was also confusion over how the presentation would be handled. It appears Bass and Mike O’Reilly were originally tagged to take the microphone. “I’m just gonna set out ground rules for pushy reporters and then watch the show,” was how Bass saw her role. She suggested a maximum of three questions from the media “because we all have to get back to work.”

But then, at 10:04 a.m., by which time a number of councillors were probably sitting in a TNRD strategic planning session, Hall messaged that “I’ll open the news conference and pass the reading of the statement over to Katie to read.”

He also proposed the media be told that questions would be answered after the special meeting the following Tuesday, “giving us an opportunity to organize and give direction to new terms of reference to potential new committees.”

“OK, now I’m confused,” Bass replied. “I was to set the parameters to reporters, Mike was to read it and no questions.”

Then she sent out another message: “So now we set ourselves up for Reid to turn this personal from Katie because she has been identified as one of his critics.”

However, Neustaeter offered to do the speaking: “Whoever does it will be a target for whatever reasons he imagines… There will be a podium and mic, we won’t answer questions, and we’ll be in chambers and stand in front of our desks as advised.”

So, shortly before noon, the six councillors attending the TNRD planning meeting at the Delta Hotel got up and left, leaving Mayor Hamer-Jackson behind, and joined the remaining two councillors down the street at council chambers, where Neustaeter stepped up to the microphone and read the final version of their joint statement.

As decided barely an hour earlier, they refused to take any questions.

Thus, the inexorable process of wrestling the mayor’s authority over committees from him began in earnest, with select committees (controlled by council) replacing standing committees (controlled by the mayor), and his every attempt to get public representation on committees blocked.

This Tuesday, reports from some of those new select committees will be presented at the regular council meeting, as well as an idea for a “hybrid” approach to committees, while Hamer-Jackson will give notice he’ll ask for agreement to hold a town hall meeting to create “a public forum.” Will the united front shut him down again?

As Bill Sarai commented during that lengthy back-and-forth about the March 17 news conference, in reference to another Tuesday council meeting — the special meeting of March 21 — “Next Tuesday will be interesting.”

Aren’t they all?

Mel Rothenburger 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 has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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.