FILE PHOTO

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Reid Hamer-Jackson

The mayor of Kamloops is snubbing fellow councillors as he prepares to shuffle internal committee rosters.

Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson says he's "relieving" the workload for his fellow councillors as he seeks to install unelected people onto five council committees.

A document showing Hamer-Jackson's proposed new committee appointments came from a source within the City. He will have to bring the proposal to a public meeting in the future, but he indicated the list is finalized after "months" of preparation.

Although the City hasn't operated with non-elected citizens on the committees since at least 2019, it is allowed under city bylaws and the Community Charter. What's unclear, however, is how he chose the new appointments and how this will impact his relationship with his fellow councillors.

"People voted for change. Is this not change? And now we're getting the citizens of the community involved," Hamer-Jackson said when asked about the new appointments. "I think this is a positive thing."

It's the latest show of what's become a tumultuous relationship between the mayor and the eight councillors.

Three of the five committees would be led by people chosen by him rather than councillors, while others he intends to add wouldn't lead the committees as chairs. Two of the nine new appointments include failed council candidates from the last election, now getting their chance to make decisions for the city.

"I'm trying to relieve them of some pressure," Hamer-Jackson said of his fellow councillors. He suggested some might be overworked as they work on the Thompson Nicola Regional District and other governing committees.

He questioned why iNFOnews.ca was asking about the committee appointments since he only sent the list to administrative staff and his fellow councillors, but admitted he didn't consult with those councillors before ousting some from their positions.

He didn't answer when asked whether his decision risks an already difficult relationship with his fellow councillors.

When Hamer-Jackson was elected, he said he planned to start "task forces" for several issues he wanted to focus on during his time in office, including homelessness and drug recovery. Creating those task forces, however, requires council support, which he admitted he doesn't have. With these committees, he can instead appoint whoever he chooses, as long as councillors make up more than half the seats. 

The committee appointments were already established before the new year after initially snubbing Coun. Dale Bass from a position on any of them. He later added her, calling her omission a mistake during a December council meeting.

At least two of his proposed appointees endorsed Hamer-Jackson in election ads, including Deborah Newby and former Tk'emlups councillor Sonny Lenard.

These committees often collect staff reports and make policy recommendations among three councillors before heading to a council meeting for final approval, like development decisions and budget approvals for city projects.

There's five standing committees in total: civic operations, community relations and reconciliation, community and protective services, development and sustainability, and finance. Each of them has three councillors around the table and one to lead as chair.

Under Hamer-Jackson's new proposal, he's ousted three councillors from committee chair. Instead, he'll install failed council candidate Randy Sunderman to the development committee, Newby to community relations and reconciliation, and Bud Smith to community and protective services.

Another failed candidate, Darpan Sharma, is included on the finance committee, which is the only one of five committees that would include just one addition to the roster.

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