A member of the public is encouraged to leave a Kamloops council meeting by Community Service Officers. (Image Credit: CFJC Today / File Photo).

By James Peters

Kamloops Council

Committee recommends Kamloops council temporarily turf Public Inquiries segment of regular meetings

Nov 21, 2024 | 2:27 PM

KAMLOOPS — It appears the Public Inquiries portion of regular Kamloops council meetings is on its way out — at least for now.

At Kamloops council’s Governance and Service Excellence Select Committee meeting Thursday morning (Nov. 21), committee members voted to recommend the removal of public inquiries on a six-month trial basis. City staff will bring the details of how the recommendation could be enacted to a future council meeting.

Disruption generated during the agenda item — which is meant to allow the public to ask questions on matters related to the agenda of the day — has caused controversy during the entirety of the present term of council.

Last month, a recommendation to remove Public Inquiries from the regular council agenda was forwarded to the select committee, which consists of Councillors Dale Bass (chair), Katie Neustaeter and Bill Sarai.

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Public Inquiries is regularly dominated by a small group of regular attendees who, according to Sarai, do not ask questions of council and staff in good faith.

“There’s a lot of opinions on items on our agenda but they’re not questions,” Sarai told the committee. “There’s no person ready to straighten that out and I think that’s where we’re struggling.”

As a second-term councillor, Sarai said he feels he was spoiled by former mayor Ken Christian’s able adjudication of council meetings. Bass took it a step further.

“Addressing the elephant in the room, a lot of these (moves) that we’re doing are because we have a mayor (Reid Hamer-Jackson) who doesn’t do his job,” she said.

Dissatisfaction with the present state of Public Inquiries came to a head on September 24, when a member of the public participating via Zoom displayed several seconds of pornography, which was then broadcast into council chambers and over the City of Kamloops online stream. That prompted a public apology from the city and council.

“I wouldn’t let my little nephews come into this room and watch these proceedings,” said Neustaeter Thursday. “I wouldn’t do it. It’s not a safe space right now for people who are young. For seniors who were so upset — and rightfully so — by the indignity of what they saw in this space that day that video was bombed in here.”

“This is the first term (when) on a number of occasions, I didn’t feel safe in this chamber,” agreed Sarai. “Listening to the discussion here and looking at other municipalities… the world has changed. Politics have changed throughout the world and we’re not excluded from it.” Sarai

The committee discussed consolidating the meeting segment and moving it to the end of the meeting, but found potential pitfalls in those possibilities.

“I’m quite ready to just ban the damn thing,” said Bass.

That’s exactly what is bring proposed to council on a six-month basis. The committee members noted the public still has plenty of avenues to engage with council, including email, social media and the City of Kamloops Let’s Talk page.