FILE PHOTO - Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson (right) and Kamloops councillor Katie Neustaeter (left) at a March 28, 2023, council meeting.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

The mayor of Kamloops and a councillor are in a squabble over breaches of personal and professional boundaries, but neither will reveal much information about it.

Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson says it all started when councillor Katie Neustaeter's father, former MLA Kevin Krueger, approached him before the election to praise his efforts. The mayor says he later tried to meet with the seasoned politician and sought his contact information through Neustaeter, but she declined to help and he suggests she stood in the way.

"She brought me into her family problems and it's not my problem," Hamer-Jackson said. "I've got nothing to do with their family issues."

Hamer-Jackson was accused of breaching personal boundaries, disrespectful behaviour and belittling others by all of council last month. Very few details of that behaviour behind closed doors has been shared with the public, but the mayor suggested Neustaeter is using his attempts to reach her father as an example.

"She told me she didn't want me to meet with her dad because he's a sick man," Hamer-Jackson said. "So I didn't do nothing."

Hamer-Jackson didn't explain what she meant by "sick," but Neustaeter told iNFOnews.ca she "absolutely never said that to the mayor."

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Krueger represented the Kamloops region in Victoria for 17 years and has a wealth of experience in government. During the election, he says he saw potential in Hamer-Jackson.

"I really appreciated his plain-spoken way on the campaign and in the debates," Krueger told iNFOnews.ca. "And all that work he put into genuinely going around talking to people on the street in the scary times of night by himself to find out 'why are you here?' He clearly cares and I thought that was great."

Krueger eventually scheduled a meeting with the mayor for lunch sometime in January, but he cancelled the day before. Hamer-Jackson never got an explanation.

"Shortly after that, Neustaeter... writes this long thing saying this is not up for debate — that I tried to contact her family four times," Hamer-Jackson said. "Since then, I've been asking for proof."

Krueger didn't explain why he cancelled the meeting to the mayor, but he did explain his change of heart.

"You start talking to Reid about one issue and he says you talked to him about a bunch. He says inflammatory things like he always says, but I realized this is going to be nothing but grief for me because he's going to be attributing his thoughts to me," Krueger said. "It is going to get personal if my daughter thinks I'm somehow campaigning against her."

Hamer-Jackson and Krueger both said they didn't discuss Neustaeter and her work on council. Krueger did say he backed away from the mayor on his own and he wasn't influenced by his daughter to cancel any meetings with Hamer-Jackson.

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"I made up my mind the guy is just too erratic for me to want to be involved in at all," Krueger said.

Neustaeter didn't comment specifically about why she would be opposed to the mayor meeting with her father.

She said the account of Hamer-Jackson approaching her for Krueger's contact information was "inaccurate," but didn't clarify the events.

"What you're seeing here is council continuing to manage the chaos unlike anything Kamloops has ever seen in municipal government," she said. "When we talk about violations of personal and professional boundaries, that was a statement made by all of council."

That statement was a joint effort by council during a March 17 press conference where all eight called out the mayor for his "erratic" behaviour, then refused to take questions after the statement. Neustaeter took the lead and read the statement to reporters in the room.

"(Proof) is not mine to deliver. That was a statement made by all of council, not me personally. I understand that's something that can be difficult for someone to understand, but it's not my place to speak on behalf of all of council and those specific examples. I did hope that (on April 6) we would be able to discuss some of those specifics, but of course not everyone chose to attend that meeting."

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Council held a closed meeting on April 6 on the basis of solicitor-client privilege. Hamer-Jackson recused himself from the meeting after unsuccessfully trying to glean more information about the content of the meeting before closing the meeting to the public.

"I feel that this is more of a personal issue, not a city issue. I don't feel the taxpayers should be paying for personal issues," he said as he opposed council's effort going into closed.

He was unsuccessful in blocking the closed meeting then chose not to attend, leaving the room while the rest of council remained in the room.

"I don't think we should even have a closed meeting," he said. "This is about allegations in public."

It's not clear when the feuds will come to a close as the mayor continues to seek "proof" of the accusations against him. None of the councillors have offered their proof of the mayor's breach of personal boundaries and bullying behind closed doors. Meanwhile, his lawyer David McMillan has written letters to the editor for Kamloops This Week and CFJC to call on those councillors to provide their proof.

It's the latest in a series of spats between the mayor and fellow councillors, which is showing no signs of stopping any time soon.

— This story was updated at 3:01 p.m., April 11, 2023, with an additional comment from Kate Neustaeter.

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