EDITORIAL – Councillors would disagree with the mayor if he said the sky is blue

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE the more they stay the same around the council table.

On the same day Kamloops City council approved a schedule for what it calls town hall meetings, it completely ignored an opportunity to release information on some of the controversial goings-on with Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson.

The format for the public meetings, which will be held in various parts of the city, is sorely lacking, but at least they’ve come up with something. On the other hand, councillors twiddled their thumbs as the mayor asked for a motion to release the full report of the investigation into his treatment of several City Hall staffers.

He also asked for the release of a mystery letter he said was presented to him in his office by three councillors. And, he requested that minutes of certain in-camera meetings in which “innuendos” were made about him also be brought forward to public.

As the mayor pointed out, council could release all of that material if it wanted to. Certainly, it was discussed behind closed doors and councillors can hide behind the cloak of confidentially and the fact it deals with “personnel” matters.

But council also has the authority to bring forward matters from closed meetings that are no longer required to be kept secret.

The report into complaints filed by staff members would simply have to be redacted with respect to identities, though councillors were comfortable in revealing earlier that one of the complainants was CAO David Trawin.

The mayor should have been more forceful in challenging the councillors to authorize release of the documents but they wouldn’t have done it anyway.

By the way, he also asked who is authorizing deputy mayors to do things even when he’s available. Again, councillors and staff were struck dumb.

Hamer-Jackson could make a motion declaring the sky is blue and the eight councillors would either ignore him or claim it’s green and yellow polka dots.

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.