CITY COUNCIL – Mayor ‘chief instigator of chaos,’ claims letter to Kahlon
(Image: Mel Rothenburger)
A City council report to Municipal Affairs Minister Ravi Kahlon outlines a litany of grievances against Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson, characterizing his behaviour as “resulting in widespread disruption, excessive costs and public concern.”
The report/ letter, written in response to a request from Kahlon for an update on steps taken as a result of an investigation by former Abbotsford mayor Henry Braun into dysfunction within the council, was released publicly today with a few redactions.
The City had previously refused to release the report and letter to ArmchairMayor.ca, later acknowledging its existence and basic contents May 5. The nine-page letter, which includes reams of attachments that include details of various complaints and investigations, was sent to Kahlon in February and signed on behalf of council by Coun. Nancy Bepple.
It claims there have been 24 substantiated complaints of workplace misconduct by the mayor, “repeated” privacy breaches and breaches of confidentiality, “ongoing” code of conduct violations, “distracting” personal lawsuits launched by Hamer-Jackson, alleged conflicts of interest and disregard for his mayoral duties.
This, it says, has resulted in “escalating cost to the taxpayers.”
The second half of the letter outlines the various sanctions that have been put on the mayor, blaming him as “the chief instigator of the ongoing chaos at City Hall.”
It acknowledges no responsibility on the part of council for the dysfunction, and the only apparent mention of Coun. Bill Sarai’s secret recording of an argument with Hamer-Jackson appears to be in a copy of a media story included in the appendices. It does, however, include as attachments many pages relating to the legal issues between the mayor and Coun. Katie Neustaeter, and claims the mayor’s defamation lawsuit against her is “misguided.”
The letter ends with a plea to Kahlon to implement “tools needed to navigate challenges like the one we currently face and will ensure that no community is left vulnerable to similar harm, disruption and excessive costs in the future.”
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Seems about right! That leopard is not going to change his spots
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It’s council causing all the issues. Not the Mayor.
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Why does this council continually bring up the Neustaeter defamation lawsuit, it’s before the courts, leave it alone. But they can’t do that, makes me wonder if there’s more to it then they’re letting on, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”.
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That St. Patrick’s Day debacle backfired on them, Mac. A lot of thinking people who have been through some rough spots in life have wondered for a long time about the reasoning behind 8 adults standing up making fools of themselves. Their spokesperson should have known better but does being in the spotlight kind of feed an inflated ego?
Would Sarai be issuing an apology to anyone had the RCMP not been involved to uncover the truth? It’s going to be interesting to read the text of the apology and I hope Sarai mentions having had to confess to the truth because of the police investigation.
Above all, the citizens of this city are growing weary of the same old script being regurgitated over and over. Let’s hope someone other than the writer of the St. Patrick’s Day session comes up with something that is a lot more palatable.
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He’s already apologized, he’ll just regurgitate what he’s already said and it won’t be more palatable this time than it was the last time. They’re an unscrupulous lot, the fact that they brazenly dare flaunt another AAP in our faces after the division the last one caused is enough proof for me.
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The excessive costs to the taxpayers comes from decisions made by councillors unable to contrast every wish and other questionable decisions made by administrators
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