Kamloops mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson was found to have breached a code of conduct bylaw by misleading the public after a complaint from Coun. Katie Neustaeter in Jul 2023.

Image Credit: YOUTUBE/City of Kamloops and SUBMITTED/Reid Hamer-Jackson

Kamloops mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson misled the public last summer and broke the council's own code of conduct rules.

That's according to a document provided by City of Kamloops staff, summarizing 17 different complaints about elected officials.

Two months after the bylaw first came into effect, the first complaint was levied against Hamer-Jackson and may be the first to result in sanctions.

In July 2023, councillor Katie Neustaeter filed two complaints against him. The first claimed he breached the bylaw by misleading the public.

"The investigator found that the mayor's evidence was inconsistent and not credible," the City-provided summary reads.

READ MORE: Kamloops taxpayers funding 17 council conduct investigations

It goes on to say the investigator found the mayor was "in breach of his obligations."

"There is no evidence to corroborate his statements... are true and not misleading," reads an excerpt from the as yet unreleased report.

Exactly what Hamer-Jackson said that was untrue hasn't been made public, but it's expected to be detailed in the full report once it's released.

What sanctions council imposed on Hamer-Jackson, if any, should also be made public within the next month.

Neustaeter's two complaints cost taxpayers a total $8,904, but the second was dismissed.

She claimed both Hamer-Jackson and his lawyer, acting on the mayor's behalf, discriminated against her on the basis of gender, age and physical appearance. The mayor "endorsed and perpetuated the misogynistic view with his own statements and support of the position," according to the report.

That report also has not been made public, but the investigator found there was no wrongdoing on the mayor's part.

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"The investigator found that the mayor cannot be held responsible for the conduct of his lawyer that was not based on his instructions, and that his lawyer's comments do not constitute a breach of the code of conduct by the mayor," it reads.

Again, the substance of that complaint was not detailed in the report, but it's likely they stem from his public claims related to a defamation suit between the two.

In a March 2023 press conference, Neustaeter read a joint statement aloud on behalf of the eight councillors. 

"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," she said.

Hamer-Jackson later focused on the "violations of personal and professional boundaries" part of that statement, telling iNFOnews.ca the statement led to Kamloops residents calling him a "pervert" and speculating that he'd engaged in sexual harassment. That claim has not come from city hall.

It's not clear if the findings of the report will affect the unresolved defamation suit.

Of the 17 investigations, seven are completed and two, including the mayor's misleading statements, were founded.

The "majority" of the other founded complaint was dismissed, according to the report. One component of the complaint was found to be a "trivial breach," the investigator found, when councillor Bill Sarai failed to "rigorously avoid" what could appear to be a conflict of interest. 

Sarai praised the City's bylaw department, where his son is employed, during a council meeting. The investigator did not seek to find whether Sarai was in a conflict of interest, only confirming he breached council's code of conduct, then urged council not to take action against Sarai.

Ten more investigations have yet to be completed and two of those haven't started yet.

— This story was corrected at 4:35 p.m., Feb. 12, 2024, to say Bill Sarai was not found to be in a conflict of interest, but he did breach the code of conduct bylaw.

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