File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Kamloops Council

Four Kamloops council Code of Conduct complaints withdrawn because complainants feared reprisal

Jun 13, 2024 | 2:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — City of Kamloops staff say four complaints under council’s Code of Conduct have been withdrawn because the people who brought them forward feared the subject would retaliate.

On Thursday (June 13), CFJC Today requested and received a document summarizing complaints filed under the Code of Conduct.

The document, current to May 27, 2024, shows 19 complaints have been filed since the policy came into effect in April 2023. Under the bylaw, the chief administrative officer must retain an investigator to look into those complaints.

Seven of the 19 complaints have been fully investigated — unchanged from CFJC Today’s last report in February. Six of those complaints were dismissed, while Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson was found to have breached the Code of Conduct in the seventh.

The majority of the remaining 12 complaints revolve around alleged breaches of confidentiality, bullying and harassment. Neither the complainants nor the subjects of the complaints are identified in the document.

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Investigations are in progress for five complaints, dating back as far as August 2023, with no conclusions determined as yet.

The remaining seven Code of Conduct complaints were all withdrawn by the people who brought them forward — six by a member or members of council and one by a City of Kamloops staffer.

Of the seven withdrawn complaints, four were withdrawn because of a fear of retaliation, either direct or indirect, by the subject. This includes the complaint filed by the staff member.

A fifth complaint was withdrawn because the respondent “would not agree to informal resolution” and the complainant was concerned about how much the investigation would cost.

The remaining two complaints were withdrawn without explanation.

The total cost to investigate the 19 complaints has reached $143,881.19 — $50,000 more than in the February document. Of that total, $66,411.46, or 46 per cent, was spent investigating four complaints brought forward by former councillor Denis Walsh. All four were dismissed.