FILE PHOTO
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Reid Hamer-Jackson
June 17, 2023 - 8:00 AM
The mayor of Kamloops took private employee documents home, nearly forcing the province to step in.
He was given a 20-day deadline to return the documents and obliged, but the next step would have required the City to ask the Attorney General to seek a court injunction.
City councillor Mike O'Reilly said it's "regretful and unfortunate" the City had to address the mayor's breach publicly.
"The information was confidential and it should not have been disclosed," he said. "That being said, there were news reports that were inaccurate and incomplete. It's important for us to correct the record."
He didn't say exactly what was inaccurate about news coverage of the mayor's privacy breach, but other media outlets reported Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson took an employee's performance review home.
Hamer-Jackson has not immediately responded to a request for comment from iNFOnews.ca.
O'Reilly said he couldn't confirm how many employees were impacted and said there were documents for "multiple" employees.
Hamer-Jackson is accused of breaching the province's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which was reported to the privacy commissioner.
It's not clear whether the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner is keeping it's file open. Spokesperson Michelle Mitchell said she could not confirm the City had even reported the incident.
It's not clear exactly when Hamer-Jackson took the documents to his home nor when he returned them, but council held an in-camera meeting on May 30 to implement its own policy for confidential records.
The results of that meeting and the policy they voted on were released publicly as part of the June 13 meeting, where Hamer-Jackson was the sole opposing vote.
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