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By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: No opportunity to kick some sand gets past City council

Jun 14, 2023 | 5:01 AM

THERE’S NO SANDBOX big enough for the Kamloops mayor and councillors to play in at the same time. They can’t even get through a routine meeting without kicking sand in each other’s faces.

Tuesday’s meeting seemed to be going OK until Coun. Dale Bass presented a notice of motion on the creation of a so-called urban councillors caucus to replace the old urban mayors caucus. The mayors of B.C.’s major cities, she said, didn’t want to carry on the regular meetings they used to have.

At that point, Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson mentioned almost off-handedly that he’d learned that morning that the mayors would be renewing their own caucus after all.

That was a surprise to Bass, who commented she wished he’d mentioned it before she brought up her motion, and then said she might as well withdraw it.

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She had a point, though. The renewal of the mayors’ discussion group would have been an appropriate thing to mention under the Mayor’s Report on the agenda.

When pressed by councillors for details of the decision, Hamer-Jackson shrugged it off, saying he had no details, not even an indication of how often they’d meet.

This did not please councillors. Then Coun. Bill Sarai added that the mayor should provide reports of his meetings with provincial cabinet ministers. The mayor asked which meetings Sarai was referring to, since the council’s executive assistant took notes, and he provided summaries.

Sarai replied that he didn’t want to be specific because it was something that had been discussed behind closed doors. Hamer-Jackson was clearly perplexed but Sara stuck to his thread.

So we had a mayor who didn’t think it was important enough to mention a development that directly affected a councillor’s notice of motion, nor to elaborate. And then we had a councillor complaining about lack of information from the mayor on meetings with ministers but refusing to say which meetings.

As I said, no sandbox big enough.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

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 newspaper editor. 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.