Kamloops Council (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

KAMLOOPS CITY COUNCIL

Hamer-Jackson seeking legal advice before handing over secret recordings

Sep 29, 2023 | 4:03 PM

KAMLOOPS — In a closed meeting of council earlier this week, Kamloops city council voted to approve the hiring of an investigator to look into the mayor’s practice of secretly recording phone calls with city staff. The motion came after Reid Hamer-Jackson told council that his wife had recorded a phone call between himself and CAO David Trawin regarding Noble Creek.

Council says it launched the investigation out of a legal duty to provide a safe workplace for its employees, free of bullying and harassment.

“There is an obligation from council, there is an obligation from the corporation to take care of the safety and security of all our staff,” said Councillor Kelly Hall.

Hall stated that he hopes the mayor will follow the direction of the motion and resolution presented to him and hand over his recordings to the director of human resources.

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“The resolution that came out allows the mayor 10 days to follow the direction of that resolution. We are all hopeful that he will in 10 days hand over to Director (Colleen) Quigley all the information, all the recordings that were recorded without consent of any of the individuals,” said Hall.

To that end, Hamer-Jackson stated he has not read the letter given to him by council, and does not plan to, either. He’s also not immediately handing over the recordings.

“I think I’ll get legal advice. I’d sooner hand it over to municipal affairs, I think that would be much better. I think it’s kind of odd that I learned about a closed meeting the day before. You go in and out of closed and in the public. I didn’t even know about it at the time,” said Hamer-Jackson.

While not illegal, the recordings do breach the code of conduct for council.

The mayor went on to state he was unaware that his wife had been recording the audio, and that the topic wasn’t sensitive in nature.

“I didn’t even know it was happening,” stated Hamer-Jackson. “And again she did it for, I guess, clarity. And I don’t know what the problem is, the conversation was about CAO Trawin telling me to go tell the public, go tell the public, that we are good for this year on Noble Creek.”

With the relationship between council, staff and the mayor strained, a motion was passed this week to bring in a municipal affairs consultant from the province. A move that both sides agree with.

“Right from the get go. I’m talking from the CAO to the mayor to everybody. And I have a lot of documents that I think will be very effective,” said Hamer-Jackson.

“I’m confident that everybody will participate and if we can heed the advice, then we can move forward. I’m hopeful,” added Hall.

Hall noted that Hamer-Jackson has a little over a week to hand over the requested documents for the investigation.