CITY HALL – Deadline for mayor’s basement move comes and goes
It’s now not a basement. (Image: Mel Rothenburger)
The deadline has come and gone for Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson to remove his stuff from the mayor’s office at City Hall and move downstairs.
City council had given him until Tuesday (Oct. 22, 2024) to change offices in order, said deputy mayor Mike O’Reilly, to protect staff from further inappropriate behaviour by the mayor.
Details of the alleged behaviour haven’t been made public.
O’Reilly said Oct. 4 the new quarters — a former meeting room in the basement of the building — is quite large, has an “executive” washroom and will be equipped with a coffee machine.
The decision to move Hamer-Jackson out of the office that has been used by the past several mayors was made at a closed meeting in August. Hamer-Jackson told council and staff at the last council meeting he didn’t intend to move and suggested a court order would be needed to evict him.
When asked by ArmchairMayor.ca during a break in Tuesday’s council meeting if he’d moved yet, he stood by his earlier comments, saying, “I’m not going to move.”
The only obvious indication Tuesday of any changes to the downstairs location was the removal of the word “Basement” from the door that opens onto the City Hall parking lot. There was no additional signage indicating it’s now the mayor’s office.
Hamer-Jackson has also told ArmchairMayor.ca that he asked RCMP to investigate possible bugging and other intrusions into his office but it didn’t result in any action. He said Coun. Bill Sarai provided him with part of an audio tape in September, recorded during a meeting in the office between the two in January 2023, that made him think the office might be bugged, but he hasn’t received the full tape.
He said Sarai’s use of the word “forwarded” with respect to how he obtained the tape made him suspect the bugging by parties unknown.
Parts of the argument between Hamer-Jackson and Sarai were overheard by staff, which led to what has become known as the Honcharuk report on alleged inappropriate behaviour toward staff by the mayor.
Meanwhile, council has cut Hamer-Jackson’s pay by another 15 per cent, in addition to the 10 percent cut earlier this year. The reason, apparently, is that the mayor gave copies of the Honcharuk report to media. He’s said he has never been given a copy of the report by staff or councillors but that he received it anonymously in the mail.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
If the conversation was secretly recorded without either of the 2 principles knowledge and a recording is floating around as evidence then the police need to investigate as this is a clear violation of the law.
If one of the principles knew of the recording at the time of the recording then this is a clear violation of the code of conduct and needs to be investigated by the city.
If neither the principles new of the recording but Sarai now has a recording he needs to forward the recording and an investigation needs to commence by the city as to who is sending this recording, who recorded it, why Sarai didn’t immediately report the forwarded recording and so on.
If the conversation was so loud as others could easily overhear the conversation then the city needs to investigate it’s policy as to the recording and distribution of workplace events as something like this is clearly not in anyones job description.
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An article on Infonews site this morning advised the readers that an audio recording was made by a Councillor of an argument between him and Mayor Hamer-Jackson.
Are the acoustics in the basement office area as good or better to still afford secret recordings can take place between the Mayor and say, a councillor visiting his new office?
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In all fairness though, given what transpired in the last few years, it should definitely be the Sarai that should move out of City Hall’s.
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