Kamloops mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson in his office on Oct. 21, 2024, a day before his deadline to move to a newly-built basement office.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

The mayor of Kamloops would be earning a healthy $150,000 per year if not for a series of compounding punishments by his council colleagues.

Instead, Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson earns less than a city councillor and it could soon drop further, even below the provincial minimum wage.

"Isn't that something?" Hamer-Jackson told iNFOnews.ca while laughing when asked about the substantial pay cut.

He said he'll be OK once he sells some property, but he's "struggling to pay bills" for now.

City council has taken away most of his salary, some benefits and some duties over the past year. The latest move, his largest single pay cut, will ramp up over the next several weeks.

He has no plans to abide by any conditions imposed by city council, so in less than two months he'll be left with a fifth of what his pay is meant to be. That's the equivalent of a roughly $24,000 salary — less than $12 per hour at a full-time wage.

BC's minimum hourly wage hasn't been that low since 2017 and currently sits at $17.85.

"It's not about the money. It's about trying to take corrective actions so the behaviour can change," Coun. Mike O'Reilly said.

It comes after yet another conduct investigation and, as of today, his pay cheques are equal to a $48,000 salary. City councillors, meanwhile, are paid $52,333.

According to the most recent financial documents, Hamer-Jackson's salary was $120,059, plus $11,400 in benefits. It doesn't account for the amount that's withheld, but O'Reilly said that money is kept in a reserve and what might happen with it isn't clear.

At its full amount, the mayor's salary would be the sixth-highest in the province outside the Lower Mainland, according to the CBC.

The data was compiled in 2021 and local official salaries since then have risen across BC.

According to those numbers, it puts him in the bottom third among BC mayors, on par with towns with less than 3,000 people like Clearwater and Princeton.

Hamer-Jackson's income would've been bolstered by roughly another $18,500 if he hadn't been pulled from the board of the Thompson Nicola Regional District, which has seven directors from Kamloops.

In 2023, his combined earnings would've been close to $150,000 before pay cuts and removal from outside boards.

If Hamer-Jackson chose to sign the multiple apology letters and take the workplace conduct, privacy law and conflict of interest courses demanded by council his salary would return to normal. He has so far refused and said he has no plans to change his mind.

As his pay cheques keep shrinking, his bills keep racking up.

Hamer-Jackson recently agreed to pay his former lawyer Dan Coles $42,000 in outstanding legal fees. He's accused of owing another former lawyer more than $30,000 in a now-sealed court file.

It's not clear how he's funding his three ongoing defamation lawsuits.

Hamer-Jackson's used car dealership hasn't been operating since the 2022 election and the property remains for sale at $4.4 million, nearly four times the listing price of another dealership on the same street.

His house and his boat have also been listed for sale in private listings, but it's not clear whether he has gotten any offers in any of those sales.

Since the election, a vehicle on his car lot burned down and his business property has been vandalized multiple times, including a notable recent break-in that left the interior ransacked.

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