File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

City Hall

Public input banished from Kamloops council agenda again after ‘Al Koehollic’ a no-show

May 27, 2025 | 3:09 PM

KAMLOOPS — The return of public input to the Kamloops council agenda was short-lived.

Formerly known as ‘Public Inquiries’, the opportunity for members of the public was suspended in January with councillors complaining the opportunity was being dominated and abused by a small group of people. In one case, someone participating via Zoom displayed pornography under the guise of asking a question.

Earlier this month, council adopted strict new rules brought forward by its Governance and Service Excellence Select Committee, including pre-registration of speakers and shorter time limits. The modified ‘Public Input’ section returned to the regular agenda Tuesday (May 27).

Only one person pre-registered to speak at Tuesday’s meeting, giving the name ‘Al Koehollic’. The name was eventually removed from the agenda and, when Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson called for the presenter to step forward Tuesday, there was no response.

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That was enough for Councillor Margot Middleton to call for Public Input to be suspended for the remainder of the calendar year.

“This will give us time for this to go to committee for the committee to have the time to review it and, with our processes and whatnot, will give staff and committee time to look at [rewriting] or amending the bylaw,” said Middleton.

Councillors were advised of the attempted trickery in a memo prior to Tuesday’s meeting. Hamer-Jackson, who admitted he had not read the memo, questioned the move to toss out the new Public Input protocol so quickly.

“Why did we do this last process?” Hamer-Jackson asked Middleton. “Why did we do this? Two minutes, register at… noon on Monday, only five people. That’s a lot of work that was put into this. Why are we changing it now?”

“We have already seen a misstep or an issue, so our first opportunity out has already been abused,” she responded. “I do not think we should subject our staff, our council, our community members to the potential for further abuse.”

The next Governance and Service Excellence Committee meeting is scheduled for September 4, 2025.