Seven Kamloops councillors and chief administrative officer David Trawin held a meeting Jan. 10, 2023, but there were two empty seats including mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson.
Image Credit: TWITTER/Mike O'Reilly
January 11, 2023 - 6:00 PM
The inside squabbling at Kamloops City Hall continued this week after new mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson failed to show up for meetings — and no one could find him.
In this week's episode of City Hall drama, Hamer-Jackson failed to attend a "team building" meeting with fellow councillors, the city manager and an outside facilitator.
Councillor and sometimes-political opponent Dale Bass said he's been out of contact with City staff and other councillors for roughly a week.
"None of us know where he is," she said on Tuesday after the morning meeting, noting it's unusual for a mayor not to notify others of where he might be and how he can be reached.
After he returned from a holiday in Mexico over Christmas and New Year's, Mayor Hamer-Jackson emailed council and some staff, but he hasn't been heard from since.
Councillor Bill Sarai was also absent from the meeting, but he was already known to be away in India, Bass said.
So where did Hamer-Jackson go?
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He didn't tell iNFOnews.ca and he didn't return phone calls, but he did return a text message within hours to say he's been busy with City business since the election, "even before inauguration."
"Where are you getting your information from?" he responded when told of claims that he's been out of reach from city hall.
He wasn't available Wednesday for an interview, but seemed to look at skipping the "team building" meeting as a non-issue.
"I don't believe the taxpayers of the city should be paying for (chief administrative officer)-council team building meetings. The voters picked the team," he said in a text message.
It seems the spat between the City's new mayor and one of its veteran councillors hasn't been resolved, in a feud that dates back to well before the election.
"He will have to find friends on council and all of us are potential friends to get the work done," Bass said of the new mayor in the days after the election.
And Hamer-Jackson, upset over her comments about his proposed drug treatment centre in Rayleigh comparing it to a "concentration camp," said he would work with her if she said she was sorry.
Bass is the deputy mayor this month, representing the City when the mayor is unavailable. Her job is to step in to speak with staff and face the public when the mayor is away.
She was recently quoted in a news release instead of Hamer-Jackson when the City announced the Northbridge Hotel was set to be demolished.
"Yesterday I had a reporter ask why it's my quotes in a media release and it's because staff couldn't locate the mayor," Bass said.
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Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Dale Bass
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Whether Hamer-Jackson's apparent absence from city hall has any consequence for government business isn't clear, but Bass added in Hamer-Jackson's first ten weeks since the election, he's been away for four.
He did skip an entire council meeting in December, citing a conflict of interest with two agenda items. One garnered attention for his legal conflicts with local non-profits, while the other, he said, was related to a family friend's rezoning application.
His legal conflicts with local non-profits, ASK Wellness and Canadian Mental Health Association, seemed to expose the City to possible litigation, forcing it to seek legal advice in December. Hamer-Jackson was not allowed to join those meetings.
Chief administrative officer David Trawin didn't return phone calls from iNFOnews.ca in time for publication.
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