Kamloops councillors unite against mayor's perceived 'chaotic' and 'unpredictable' behaviour

Kamloops city council gathered at city hall on Friday afternoon to deliver a joint statement condemning the mayor's actions in recent months.

"While we, all eight city councillors, would prefer to be performing the job that we've been elected to do by our citizens, we instead find ourselves again combating the chaotic and unpredictable behaviour of our mayor that leads to confusion and misinformation," Coun. Katie Neustater read from a collective statement. 

This comes after the mayor shuffled committees on Thursday, removing councillors from their spots without consultation, council says. 

"Counter to public comments made by Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson [Thursday], no councillor you see before you today has ever expressed a desire to be quote "relieved of our workload." No councillor has ever expressed that they were quote "kind of overwhelmed." No chair has shown any quote, "lack of commitment" or has any conflict," Neustater said.

"These are examples of blatant untruths."

Kamloops This Week, the local newspaper, reported that several councillors had been removed as chairs of committees and were replaced by members of the community. 

The mayor has defended his actions and said he's been working on new committee placements for "quite a while."

"This was a positive thing," he told CBC. "If we can get more people involved in the city, you know, in our committees, why wouldn't we?"

He said the people he handpicked for committee roles have experience with the portfolios they were chosen to work on. 

Hamer-Jackson added that he and council had until March 28 to make adjustments, and he was disappointed documents around new committee members were provided to media. 

This isn't the first time the mayor has made an unusual move; in December, he recused himself from an entire council meeting (less than five seconds), claiming he was in conflict with two items on the meeting's agenda. Rather than returning after those items were handled, he disappeared. 

And in November, just one month after he was elected, B.C. Housing shelter operators in the city requested he stop making unannounced visits, bringing in someone who needs a bed — even to places that don't operate drop-in shelters.

In its statement, council says it is concerned the situation at city hall is impacting citizens. 

"While we as councillors have been subjected to repeated disrespect, violations of personal and professional boundaries, belittling and constantly disruptive behaviour by the mayor, we've been willing to absorb the impact in service to our community and in an attempt to have city business compromised as little as possible," Neustater said.