Image Credit: Mel Rothenburger/File Photo

By Mel Rothenburger

Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Mayor would run again tomorrow despite ‘tight cuffs’

Mar 23, 2024 | 8:10 AM

I’LL BET YOU THOUGHT last Sunday was a celebration of the Irish missionary St. Patrick, a time to wear something green and drink green-coloured beer.

Well, that, too, but more importantly it was the anniversary of the St. Patrick’s Day manifesto, the day in 2023 when all eight City councillors gathered the media in council chambers to hear a prepared statement lambasting Mayor Reid-Hamer Jackson.

As you’ll recall, Coun. Katie Neustaeter read the document on behalf of the councillors, the said document accusing the mayor of “chaotic and unpredictable behaviour,” “repeated disrespect” and other things.

The sin that precipitated this event was the mayor’s decision to change the lineup of standing committees, removing some of the councillors as chairs and appointing several members of the public.

It was the height of disharmony between Hamer-Jackson and the councillors. So, have things gotten better in the year since?

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“Worse,” says the mayor without hesitation.

His verdict is understandable. His committee appointments were reversed as councillors succeeded in replacing them with a set of “select” committees appointed by themselves.

A libel lawsuit he launched against Neustaeter drags on and is now being handled by a Vancouver legal firm. The City (i.e. taxpayers) is paying Neustaeter’s legal bills; the mayor is paying his own.

A series of investigations into allegations regarding the mayor’s conduct have been done but he’s still trying to get access to all of the reports.

As a result of one of the reviews, he isn’t allowed to meet with CAO David Trawin unless a third party is present, and his communications with three other senior staff are also restricted.

The sources of leaks to the media from within City Hall about some of those reports have yet to be identified.

Council has held a number of in camera meetings from which the mayor has been excluded.

Sniping during council meetings continues, with the entertainment highlight being Coun. Stephen Karpuk’s amazing Fartgate performance.

During council meetings, the mayor is frequently reminded by corporate officer Maria Mazzotta to consider whether he has a conflict of interest on a particular item on the agenda.

There was that contentious exchange of letters between the mayor, via his lawyer, and ASK Wellness.

His proposal for a review of the location of the 48 Victoria St. West storage facility for the homeless was watered down by council, with no action being taken almost a year later. His proposal to hire more outreach workers got nowhere.

He got into hot water over a taped phone conversation he had with Trawin, and for some personnel documents left in his office by previous mayors.

He’s been accused of threatening to fire Trawin, which he denies.

The role of deputy mayor has been expanded into a sort of shadow-mayor overseer role, taking on an authority it never had in the past.

That list is, by no means, all-inclusive but you get the picture. The code of conduct stuff in particular vexes him.

“The cuffs are pretty tight,” he says, crossing his wrists to mimic handcuffs.

Just how tight played out in a strange little incident last week involving his annual State of the City address to the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce.

Just before last year’s chamber event, the committee structure issue had blown up and councillors were emailing each other about making sure they didn’t sit at the same table as the mayor, and cracking jokes about being careful with dinner knives.

This year, the issue at the dinner was over an X-rated slide show he wanted to present illustrating social disorder but also showing some of the progress made. He didn’t have time to vet the slides properly but deputy CAO Byron McCorkell and deputy mayor Mike O’Reilly did, and axed it.

The incident is just one more example of how tight a rein the mayor is under. He wonders out loud whether he’ll next be prohibited from making speeches without permission.

So, if a civic election was held tomorrow, would Reid Hamer-Jackson run again?

Definitely, he says. What about when the actual election comes up about two and a half years from now? No commitment on that but he says he has some things going on in the background that will show real progress on the social disorder front soon. No details.

“I just want us to have a safe community and I believe we can do it, but we have to be accountable,” he says.

Still to come, of course, is provincially appointed advisor Henry Braun’s report on how to fix the whole situation. Will he loosen some of the shackles, tighten others? Maybe he’ll come up with a magic formula to make the coming year better than the last one.

MEANWHILE, in Medicine Hat, Mayor Linnsie Clark has been publicly reprimanded by her councillors, had her pay cut in half, is no longer the council’s official spokesperson, can no longer chair council meetings and can only communicate with the City manager via emails that must be copied to all council members. All that at a special council meeting Thursday in punishment for allegedly failing to treat the manager with “courtesy, dignity and respect” at an earlier meeting, in violation of the council’s code of conduct. Saying she ran on a platform of changing the way things are done at City Hall, she’s reviewing her legal options.

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.

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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.