Investigation finds Sarai breached code with secret recording; mayor calls for councillor’s resignation
KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops council Code of Conduct investigation into Councillor Bill Sarai has found that he did breach the code of conduct and his oath of office, stemming from a recorded argument with Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson.
Back in January of 2023, Sarai secretly recorded a conversation between himself and Hamer-Jackson, then after the existence of the audio became known, lied about it’s origins. The report, prepared after an investigation by Reece Harding of the law firm Anderson, Young, states, “Councillor Sarai’s failure to disclose to the mayor that he created the edited recording is only one facet of his misconduct. He also intentionally confronted the mayor without another councillor present, created the full recording without the mayor’s knowledge, kept the full recording after the adoption of the recording policy and then attempted to use the edited recording to mislead the mayor.”
“It was months. I mean, December 3 (2024), I think it was, he called a special meeting and apologized to everybody,” Hamer-Jackson told CFJC News. “But I read the [story in another media source] and he is still saying that I was lying. I’ve actually texted him… a bunch of other information he told Reece Harding, the lawyer, and he still hasn’t called me back to explain that, so I don’t think he has learned anything.”
