FILE PHOTO - Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson (left) and Coun. Bill Sarai (right) at a Kamloops city council meeting.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

A Kamloops city councillor is expected to give a public address this week in the wake of revelations that he secretly recorded an argument with the mayor and tried to hide it.

The last-minute city council meeting has been called to both hear from councillor Bill Sarai and to determine who will serve as deputy mayor for the month on Dec. 3.

It comes after iNFOnews.ca published Sarai's recording last week and month after the recording's existence was revealed and he attempted to conceal that it was his.

The contents of that recording can be found here. It reveals the specifics of a January 2023 argument between Sarai and Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson. The conversation was known of publicly as it sparked two consecutive internal city hall investigations.

READ MORE: 'You're the snake': Kamloops councillor's secret recording revealed

Though he was the subject of those investigations, Hamer-Jackson said he wasn't aware the recording existed until this fall when Sarai sent him an edited version.

Sarai claimed someone sent it to him.

It's not clear whether either investigator knew the recording existed and it's also not clear whether that would have a material change on their results. The second investigation, though related, did not focus on the Sarai argument and instead led to damning conclusions about Hamer-Jackson's treatment of city staff.

iNFOnews.ca published both the edited and the full versions, with the latter being nearly six minutes longer.

Sarai was scheduled to serve as the deputy mayor for December, a role that has greater significance than usual this term due to restrictions on Hamer-Jackson. It's expected that council will remove Sarai from the job for this month, while also hearing from Sarai as he addresses the recording and his attempts to conceal that it was his.

He has refused to speak with iNFOnews.ca and at least two other Kamloops news outlets about the recording.

READ MORE: JONESIE: There's indeed a snake at Kamloops City Hall

Other than a likely removal from the deputy mayor's job for this month, it's not clear whether anything further will happen after Sarai's attempts to conceal the truth.

"Having just read the stories that have come out, I think it's prudent for all of us on council to take the weekend and just digest the situation," councillor Dale Bass said Friday, Nov. 29. She was also deputy mayor for November.

An online petition has also been launched in the wake of iNFOnews.ca's reporting, calling for Sarai to resign. It was started Nov. 29 by newly-formed city hall watchdogs Kamloops Citizens United and amassed more than 800 signatures by Dec. 2.

The group is taking the city to court in an effort to overturn the Alternative Approval Process that allowed the $275 million in municipal borrowing for new city facilities to go ahead.

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