FILE PHOTO - Kamloops councillor Bill Sarai, pictured here as he is sworn in for his second term on Nov. 1, 2022.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

Investigators hired to find the source of two leaks at Kamloops city hall couldn't find the culprit after months of digging, but one councillor in particular stood out from the rest.

Seven councillors gave Reece Harding of Vancouver law firm Young Anderson unequivocal denials that they leaked confidential documents to news media, but Coun. Bill Sarai initially wasn't so clear.

"As far as I can recall, I have no knowledge or information regarding this allegation," he told investigators in a written response. That was followed by a statement having nothing whatsoever to do with the question. He later gave investigators a complete denial.

iNFOnews.ca obtained a partially redacted copy of Harding's June 19, 2024 council code of conduct investigation report. That investigation attempted to find out who leaked two different but related documents.

One was a different and separate investigative finding, known as the Integrity Group report, which probed accusations that Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson bullied and harassed multiple City employees. It led council to put increasing restrictions on his role at city hall. The other was a printed set of emails between Hamer-Jackson's lawyer and the Integrity Group investigator before it was concluded.

Both were leaked at different times to separate news outlets. While Harding's investigation couldn't conclude who released them or whether they were released by the same person, Sarai was the only one who "concerned" the investigators.

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Sarai would eventually deny he leaked confidential documents — a breach of his legal obligations as an elected official, if it were true — but it took several steps to get those denials. Other councillors were quick to tell Harding they did not leak any documents, first in writing and then in interviews.

The first documents to be leaked were the emails, which the mayor printed and delivered to each councillor on May 30, 2023.

He gave packages of legal correspondence between his lawyer and a workplace investigator to each councillor ahead of a closed council meeting. He said he believed it showed the process of that Integrity Group investigation to be unfair. Some councillors said they didn't even read the documents, and seven of them said they either shredded the package or had a staff member dispose of them, according to Harding's report.

But, whatever Sarai did with them isn't known.

He didn't tell the Young Anderson investigators what he did with the documents. After the interview he said he couldn't recall "the incident," but he said he no longer had anything from that council meeting.

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The Integrity Group report itself was delivered at a June 13, 2023, closed council meeting. Ten people were given access to it in a closed council meeting. The Harding investigation doesn't say who, besides the eight councillors, also had access, but they were presumably top-level City administrators. Hamer-Jackson wasn't there and, until he said it was leaked to him earlier this year, wasn't given access.

RadioNL reported details of the emails Hamer-Jackson printed and delivered on June 19.

The Integrity Group report still wasn't public, but the document left City email servers just after midnight on June 27, 2023, when Sarai sent his copy to his personal Shaw email address. That was confirmed by the City's IT department, which sifted through email records for any outgoing messages containing that report. Sarai's email to himself was the only one.

Kamloops This Week would later report details of that report in August 2023, followed by Castanet Kamloops in January 2024.

"Councillor Sarai stated that he sometimes does this because he has trouble reading PDF files on his City system," the Young Anderson investigation reads.

It remained attached to his personal email account from June 2023 to April 2024, shortly after his interview with the investigator. Sarai later deleted it, then informed investigators, according to Harding's report.

Sarai told investigators his memories of the meetings in May and June were "not perfect." He didn't say what happened to the printed emails and did admit he sent the report to a personal mailbox, but he did "specifically" deny sharing the documents with anyone.

Investigators also interviewed someone else who had access to Sarai's email account who denied seeing the report or forwarding it to anyone. That person's name is redacted, but it appears likely to be family member living in the same house. 

iNFOnews.ca reached out to Sarai by phone, text message and email about what he told investigators, but he has not responded.

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The $62,800 investigation ultimately concluded without pointing to a source of the leaks. For seven councillors, it was "simple" to absolve them.

"In the case of Councillor Sarai, we had to take several additional steps to reach this conclusion, but his story was authenticated within our authority to the extent we could," the report reads. "At worst, he made an error of judgement to forward the report to his email."

The report does not state if Sarai's personal email servers were searched, but it doesn't appear so.

Harding's investigation began with an initial complaint filed by a member of the public in August 2023, but the report suggests Hamer-Jackson may have influenced the complaint in some capacity. The mayor later became the complainant.

Hamer-Jackson complained his reputation was damaged because of the leaked reports and he was frustrated that he didn't get a copy himself, but he had no more than "very general suspicions" about who leaked the emails and the report itself. 

He pointed those suspicions at councillors Kelly Hall and Dale Bass because they both once worked at Kamloops This Week, but the complaint was filed against every councillor.

Harding said "on a balance of probabilities" he couldn't point to anyone as the culprit behind the initial two leaks. It concludes by stressing the severity of the privacy breaches in general but there was no one he found to blame for either the email leaks or the Integrity Group report.

"These disclosures, if they came from a member of Council, ... represent flagrant disregard for the duties of confidentiality imposed by both the Code of Conduct Bylaw and the Community Charter," the Young Anderson report reads.

Despite the emphasis placed on maintaining privacy for confidential documents, the investigation appears to ignore the fact Hamer-Jackson released the damning Integrity Group report to reporters just months ago. While he did mention in passing the mayor eventually obtained a copy of the report, there was no meaningful mention of Hamer-Jackson's decision to release the report publicly. 

It's not clear whether he will face repercussions, but another councillor deemed the release "unlawful" earlier this year. The city has been trying to force news outlets to return leaked documents under threat of pursuing a court order.

Harding recommended council review its privacy policies and technology policies to keep confidential documents within city hall. He also recommended council review the powers given to code of conduct investigators as he was prohibited from seeing the Integrity Group report at the heart of his probe.

Lastly, he reminded council that it can, if it wishes, exercise authority to compel witnesses to testify under oath if they choose to further investigate the source of the leak.

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