CITY COUNCIL – Mayor must take confidential-documents request to in-camera meeting
(Image: CFJC)
Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson will have to take his request for release of several confidential documents to an in-camera meeting of Kamloops City council.
Tuesday (Sept. 5, 2023), for the second regular meeting in a row, the mayor asked councillors to approve the release of a report by the Integrity Group consulting company into allegations against him about treatment of four members of staff, including CAO David Trawin.
He also wants council to make public certain minutes of in-camera meetings he says included “innuendoes” and allegations about him, and a letter that was presented to him in his office by three councillors.
He didn’t explain why he’s required to treat the letter as confidential even though it wasn’t part of an in-camera council meeting or other confidential document.
Hamer-Jackson said release of the documents would signal a new sense of cooperation among all council members. “It would be beneficial, I believe.”
But corporate officer Maria Mazzotta, who had not commented on this request when he presented it at the last meeting, this time interrupted to say he must make it at an in camera meeting.
Hamer-Jackson acceded to Mazzotta’s statement but went on to explain why he thought releasing the documents would be a good idea.
Council has a couple of in-camera meetings scheduled. Technically, the mayor can’t reveal what council decides because the decision will be confidential unless council decides to make it public.
— Mel Rothenburger
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Has anyone watched 12 Angry Men? It details the long journey of a single man on a jury being the lone vote in opposition against his peers. Over the course of the movie, the man slowly persuaded others by pointing out the facts of the case and making compelling counter arguments. This man had the internal fortitude of a thousand elephants, and the conscience of 15 Ghandi’s. He was a strong man. A good man.
This movie could never be shot in Council, because The Hateful Eight are a gang of somewhat dense, but determined bandits trying to take down the new sherif. They simply won’t discard their loyalty to the gang no matter the situation.
Let’s recognize the strength and resilience being displayed by the Mayor, to keep going in the face of this marauding gang, trying to rustle up trouble at every turn.
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