EDITORIAL – Coun. Bill Sarai must apologize, then he must resign

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING for Coun. Bill Sarai. Since the revelations late last week about his role in surreptitiously recording a heated conversation with Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson, he has not formally apologized.

He must do that now, immediately and unequivocally. He must apologize to the mayor, and to the public. Then he must resign.

There’s no regular City council meeting scheduled this week, but it’s expected a special meeting will be called Tuesday to discuss the Sarai affair. That meeting may simply refer the matter to a closed session but this is a situation that deserves public airing.

If council decides to kick the can to a Code of Conduct or some other investigation, it would be a big waste of time and money. There’s no need to spend $60,000 or so on another study. The money would be better spent on a byelection.

Attaching an apology to his resignation is the right thing for Sarai to do. That an apology is in order, there is no doubt. When Coun. Stephen Karpuk mistakenly blamed the mayor in June 2023 for making an inappropriate fart joke at a public event, he very quickly retracted and apologized for his humiliating faux pas when made aware of the facts.

Fartgate pales in comparison with Tapegate.

There’s little doubt about what the public thinks. In short order, a change.org petition has gathered — at this writing — close to 800 signatures calling for Sarai’s resignation. That’s significant, and it’s growing. And social media forums are abuzz with comments.

The petition contends that Sarai breached both the Community Charter and his Oath of Office. Those documents, and the City’s Code of Conduct, are indeed all relevant to the situation.

In the context of this unfortunate circumstance, references will undoubtedly be made to the mayor’s behaviour. He is, after all, himself the subject of resignation demands. But the Sarai affair must be dealt with according to its own circumstances and effects.

As for the fact the mayor is responsible for a recording of his own — a conversation he had with CAO David Trawin — which was made by his wife while they were driving, the two situations simply aren’t the same. The conversation was not at all confrontational, and the mayor announced it at a public council meeting.

What effect Sarai’s recording might have had on various investigations into the mayor’s conduct is open to speculation. One certainly wonders if the Braun investigation, for example, might have come to more nuanced conclusions had the tape been part of the consideration. Instead, the Braun report placed all the responsibility for correcting course on Hamer-Jackson, and emboldened councillors to enter a new, confrontational phase with the mayor.

Now, Council must handle the Sarai tape with all the seriousness it deserves. (In a twist of timing, Sarai is the deputy mayor for December.) But it’s up to Sarai to do the proper thing, and disqualify himself from office.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. 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.