ROTHENBURGER: City Hall needs to plug the leaks of confidential info, quickly

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

AN IMPORTANT ASPECT of the war between Kamloops City council and the mayor is quietly being ignored by all parties, including the media.

If the facts ever come out about who ‘s leaking confidential information from City Hall, somebody’s going to be out of a job.

And let’s be clear — the stuff that’s being leaked isn’t exactly the Pentagon Papers or Edward Snowden, or anything approaching whistle blower status. It’s about internal communications and personnel matters that are supposed to be confidential.

It began in March when an email from the mayor to council and, apparently, a limited number of staff, informed them that he was making changes to committees.

Those changes would have soon come before council in a public meeting but somebody couldn’t wait. Somebody who decided to copy the email to the media.

Then there was the investigation ordered by council into the mayor’s interactions with four members of staff. That is a strict personnel matter — such matters are deemed confidential by law as well as by council policy, but emails were leaked to Radio NL.

Ironically, there were even confidentiality issues around the development of a new City policy on confidentiality.

Most recently, the report from a Vancouver firm hired to investigate allegations about the mayor’s treatment of staff members was obtained by Kamloops This Week.

That was followed quickly by a statement distributed via MailChimp — a marketing and email distribution company, not the City’s website — affirming City council’s support for staff and bragging about what the council has allegedly accomplished.

What’s remarkable, though, is the degree to which some councillors have reacted publicly, in media interviews, to the media’s reporting on the contents of leaked documents. Those comments have been guarded, but confidentiality requires that you don’t comment at all. Nothing. Not a word.

The seriousness of the leaks themselves can’t be over-stated. The situation deserves major attention. A leaky ship can’t stay afloat forever.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.