KAMLOOPS MAYORAL ISSUE #1 – Council infighting and dysfunction

“To me it’s about having people feel heard, respected and understood,” said Ivory Winston. “It’s not top-down leadership. It’s top-down setting the tone of respect and dignity and understanding for individuals. Then I ask the councillors who are elected – no matter who is elected – what are our priorities? What do we care about collectively? What ideas, dreams and visions do you have for our community? And how can I as leader support you in bringing all these ideas to fruition? It is not me coming in there and making all these plans, ideas and changes. It is what we can do as a team to move the city forward collectively and in an accelerated fashion. I’m all about team.”

Nelly Dever brings experience to the table, having previously served one term as a councillor. She says the mayor should be there to lead by example.

“I’ve been there before and something people don’t tend to discuss a whole lot is there are usually… one or two councillors who tend to go rogue at times, so I have been there before,” said Dever.

“It’s simple – you leave your ego at the door, you leave your ideologies at the door and you put leadership ahead of everything else – you put community first,” added Dever. “If I’m honoured enough to become the future mayor of Kamloops, at the end of the day it’s putting community first and you respect the taxpayers. And you remember that you are there to lead by example and elevate the level of pride and honour.”

As an incumbent councillor, Mike O’Reilly has had a front row seat to the dysfunction. He pointed to the work done by the councillors when not impacted by Reid Hamer-Jackson on the TNRD hospital board that he chairs.

“I think if you look back over the last four years, I’ve had the honour of being the chair of the Thompson Regional Hospital District. Everyone in Kamloops knows I was able to secure the Kamloops cancer centre and the expansion at Royal Inland Hospital emergency room,” said O’Reilly. “And I can tell you, seven of the eight elected councillors sit on that board three blocks away from city hall and we do not have issues. That is a sign we are in good governance under the hospital board, but also, it shows how poorly Mayor Hamer-Jackson’s governance is in city chambers.”

Ray Dhaliwal believes the right person in the mayor’s chair can better control the chambers.

“When I was councillor in 2017, we had a great team. We all worked together. There was none of this infighting, lawsuits and other discourse in council,” said Dhaliwal. “If you get the right person to be the mayor, they will keep everything under control. If the community comes in and is being a little rambunctious, the mayor has the power to stop that. And right now, that is not happening. They have been able to ramble on and take up staff time, increase the time it actually takes to do the city business work. As I said, with 20 years’ experience dealing with all different cultures and working together for a common goal, I think I have the skillset to keep the meetings under control and keep them on track.”

Incumbent Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson refused to be interviewed for our issue stories this week. Kris Lloyd-Middleton was under the weather and unable to participate.

by Michael Reeve

KAMLOOPS MAYORAL ISSUE #1 – Council infighting and dysfunction

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