FILE PHOTO - Kamloops mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson at a March 28, 2023 council meeting.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

The City of Kamloops spent three times more on legal bills than it budgeted for last year.

That's after a year of numerous council conduct investigations, an ongoing court challenge against new civic facilities and a hike in Freedom of Information requests.

Even before Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson was elected the city was underestimating how much it would spend on lawyers. Its budget for legal costs from 2020 to 2023 stayed under $400,000, but that was $100,000 short in 2021 and nearly $200,000 the next year. In 2023, the first full year since the last election saw spending double the budget and nearly reached $800,000.

But it was in 2024 when legal costs shot up to more than triple what the City prepared for, paying lawyers more than $1.6 million with $500,000 allocated in the budget.

At a council meeting Tuesday, Jan. 21, corporate services director David Hallinan listed several reasons for the increased costs as city council was asked to plan for nearly $1.4 million in 2025, $800,000 more than it otherwise would have.

READ MORE: More than $287,000 spent so far on Kamloops council conduct investigations

Hallinan told council Freedom of Information requests, and challenges after they are completed, have gone up leading to more legal consultations over what should and should not be redacted.

The "frequent flyers" for those FOI requests are either lawyers or news media, he said.

He also pointed to ongoing council code of conduct investigations and the ongoing court challenge against the Alternative Approval Process for Build Kamloops borrowing. He went on to say staff are anticipating the possibility that another counter petition could result in a similar court challenge from people who disagree with their use, as opposed to a referendum.

"So what you're saying is we're facing a society that is much more litigious than in the past with not much regard for reality or facts," councillor Dale Bass said in response.

Mayor Hamer-Jackson honed in on the legal matters which mostly affect him and took issue with the "frivolous and dismissed" code of conduct complaints.

"We're hiring lawyers at a huge cost in Vancouver for frivolous and dismissed code of conduct complaints," the mayor said. "Why are we not using WorkSafeBC and consultants? Why are we using high-priced lawyers?"

Chief administrative officer Byron McCorkell said council conduct investigations aren't something WorkSafeBC takes on and the City has contracted firms qualified to do the work. The vast majority have been taken on by Vancouver law firm Young Anderson.

READ MORE: Former Vernon BC United candidate suing party over unpaid expenses

"This is taxpayer dollars, and it's out of control," Hamer-Jackson said.

The mayor spent most of the discussion focused on conduct investigations and briefly mentioned his own legal bills, but the investigations only cover part of the total. Since July 2023, they have cost taxpayers $287,000. It's not clear how much of that fell into last year's budget as some investigations bled over from 2023 into 2024. 

He also brought attention to councillor Bill Sarai's six-minute secret recording, which prompted a public apology and a new code of conduct investigation last month once it was revealed by iNFOnews.ca. Sarai was so frustrated he left the meeting.

"I can't do this no more. This is a budget meeting and you're talking about," he said before Hamer-Jackson talked over him as Sarai left the room.

Hallinan reminded the mayor and councillors the legal budget includes more than just code of conduct complaints and would still fall short if they were not there.

"Whether it's a code of conduct complaint or a court filing to quash the (Alternative Approval Process), we have to have the funding to respond without putting the corporation at risk or in debt," he said.

A city staff report didn't specifically break down how much the City has spent on legal bills throughout 2024 nor to what the bills were for. Whether it was legal costs to take action for an individual who slipped on a sidewalk and sued the city, a legal opinion in advance of a City project or a union settlement, those details aren't clear.

Another legal cost is taxpayers are paying for is councillor Katie Neustaeter's defence against Hamer-Jackson's defamation suit since council opted to indemnify her.

How much that case has cost the City isn't clear, but with Hamer-Jackson's recent attempts to stall the case as he carries on without a lawyer and runs low on funds, it's also not clear how long the case will go on. 

Hallinan did say that the payout to former bylaw officers that the city settled early last year was not funded in 2024, an amount that has remained confidential. Hallinan also said the settlements with Noble Creek farmers once on a communal irrigation system came from a separate utility fund rather than property taxes, so it wasn't included in the $1.6 million total.

Council voted to approve a $300,000 legal budget increase, keeping it just shy of $900,000 for 2025.

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