LETTER – Not surprising McCorkell’s suspension was overturned but…
Byron McCorkell.
It’s not surprising that Kamloops City councillors overturned the mayor’s suspension of acting CAO Byron McCorkell but it’s unfortunate. It also leaves one wondering if the councillors consider senior administrative positions to be life tenures. Surely such positions should be performance based.
Some of our councillors are business owners themselves. Would they tolerate a manager who made a decision that lost $millions for their company? Likely not.
Yet they unanimously claimed “utmost confidence” in McCorkell, despite the fact that he made a seemingly unilateral and very costly corporate decision in 2020 to change Bylaw Officer job descriptions without consulting the union.
What’s worse, McCorkell told the council of the day that his changes wouldn’t have any financial repercussions. WALSH – How much avoidable expense can Kamloops taxpayers bear? – ArmchairMayor.ca
Wrong. The union launched a grievance and after much money spent on arbitration on both sides, the City lost. Then the City decided to appeal and lost again.
Now, taxpayers are on the hook for upwards of $5 million in reparations to union employees negatively affected by the job changes. Money is tight and our city can’t afford administrators who waste it.
Surely a City employee who made such a costly error should not be in City Hall’s top spot.
But there are other reasons, professionalism among them. Like it or not, Mayor Hamer-Jackson is the boss at city hall this term. It behooves all senior administrators to act with integrity. Yet Mr. McCorkell seems to have felt justified in blindsiding the mayor regarding his notice of motion to find ways and means to help street-entrenched people get back home.
McCorkell informed the media and not the mayor that provincial and federal funding were no longer available for Hamer-Jackson’s proposal. When confronted, McCorkell simply told him, “I’m sorry if you didn’t know that.”
How unprofessional! Why didn’t he tell the mayor about this during the intervening week? If he had time to inform the media, surely he had time to tell the mayor.
Withholding this information needlessly wasted council time and taxpayers’ money.
It seems in this case at least, that Mr. McCorkell’s professional performance was prejudicial. This is not acceptable in any senior administrator, whether in the private or public domain.
Yet, here we are, with the councillors overturning a mayoral decision that in my view would have ultimately benefitted our community.
I sincerely hope council doesn’t take this a step further and automatically crown McCorkell CAO should Mr. Trawin not return to his post. In that event, I hope the city conducts a proper search. As the mayor said regarding his suspension of McCorkell, we do need new vision at city hall.
BRONWEN SCOTT
ArmchairMayor.ca 
so Bronwyn Scott, you seem to have a pipeline directly to the mayor as he did not disclose his reasons for the suspension of McCorkle. However, you now have, that’s troubling to say the least.
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I don’t know how you got that impression. The two McCorkell issues I wrote about above are public knowledge.
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I’m more troubled that council overturned the mayors decision without knowing why he made the decision in the first place. O’Reilly stated to CBC radio “I fully hope and expect that [the mayor] will be there at the meeting to let us know as to why he is suspended. And there may be very good reason, I don’t know.” Put aside your personal feelings pro or con about the mayor and ask yourself, how do 8 of 8 make a decision to reverse the mayors decision without knowing any of the facts which went into the mayor making the decision in the first place? How do you judge something as wrong without knowing any facts?
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Confusing that a vote was even possible and quorum was met… I understand many of the councillors have spouses and other family members who work under Mccorkell. How is this not “conflict of interest” when your spouse reports to the person who has been suspended and you have to decide if the suspension should be repealed.?. Come On !
New and fresh vision, perspectives and progressive culture are desperately needed in Kamloops admin.
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If only 7 councillors were present was the 8th permitted to vote via Zoom. I thought you had to be present in person to vote. Am I mistaken?
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Yes, Coun. Kelly Hall voted via Zoom.
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Yes, I was under the impression that with CLOSED meetings, it was necessary for people to be there in person, not by “virtual means” to guarantee confidentiality.
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that’s an excellent point, I wonder if these rules are actually written and followed or if they are fluid to the admins discretion
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The bylaws department has never been reliable and effective. There is a dire need of new faces, hired from outside of Kamloops for the top managerial positions. A new CAO will be needed soon and this council under pressure from not only McCorkell itself but from his well-heeled peers will not hire a proper replacement…that is a given. Puckheads, big pickups and more of the same that is Kamloops’ destiny. On a positive note the buttercups and the lilies are out in full bloom soon followed by the balsam roots and the saskatoons…there is definitely something to rejoice about around here.
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