CITY COUNCIL – Who’s the ‘third party’ who paid for part of Trawin’s salary?
David Trawin.
Who is the mysterious “third party” who has been paying part of on-leave City CAO David Trawin’s salary?
That’s the question, but it wasn’t answered at today’s (June 24 2025) City council meeting.
During a discussion of the annual SOFI report — Statement of Financial Information — for 2024, the issue of pay for administrators was raised by Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson.
The mayor wondered out loud about some of the increases to the salaries of various management members.
“I see consistent increases with managers’ salaries that are above union increases,” he said without specifiying.
During his comments, Hamer-Jackson referred to a couple of managers, including CAO David Trawin, who has been on leave for months and replaced by Byron McCorkell. Trawin received $216,000 last year.
The total bill for both came to a half million dollars.
Coun. Mike O’Reilly said it should be noted that “a significant portion” of Trawin’s salary was being reimbursed by “a third party.”
O’Reilly didn’t indicate whether the third party is an insurance company or some other benefactor; when Hamer-Jackson asked who the third party is, O’Reilly replied he was “not at liberty to disclose.”
Neither did he say how much was reimbursed.
- Elsewhere on today’s agenda, staff presented the City’s annual report. The only public submission on it came from Coley Ecker of Kamloops Citizens United, who asked several questions about emergency evacuation routes in Westsyde, grants, the overall increase in City salaries and other matters. She didn’t get any answers but staff committed to getting the answers for councillors who can then pass them along. Ecker said KCU has been waiting for a response to some of its emails since April.
- There was some confusion over who’s allowed to call for a recess. And, when a motion is made calling the question on a motion, is that a separate motion from the original motion? It is. They must be voted on separately.
- Late in the day, council engaged in a lengthy and often heated debate over Hamer-Jackson’s motion calling for a forensic audit of City operations. The motion was defeated. More on that later.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I believe Mr. Trawin left his post in February, 2024 for what has been termed an extended medical leave. It seems odd that the City would be paying him a salary throughout the remainder of the year; one would have supposed such an expense to be covered by the City’s insurance.
If Mr. Trawin’s salary was paid by a “third party” why is the expense shown to be coming directly from the City’s budget? And where is the corresponding 3rd-party deposit noted in the books?
For Coun. O’Reilly to withhold such information is concerning; why shouldn’t taxpayers know what they’re paying for?
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It seems logical that insurance would be covering part of the cost but unclear why Coun. O’Reilly would call it “a third party” without revealing it even to the mayor.
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One time I corresponded with Mr. Trawin was following an email from Councillor Dudy when he said to me (via email) that a photo I sent to Dudy looked like “a full strength dumping ground”. Not even ONE weed was growing in a place that was about 3 feet by 6 feet in size beside the driveway at a former drug house.
Mr. Trawin was included in an email sent to me by a city manager and that email was carbon copied to what seemed like everybody except Queen Elizabeth. But, that’s another story; a very long story.
In this case, Mr. O’Reilly knows something the Mayor doesn’t. And we don’t either. Mr. O’Reilly seems to like things that way.
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It is not for us mere mortals to know. Better that such matters are left to the big important people who are in charge of setting our taxes, spending our dollars,.setting their own pay raises, and ensuring a lack of transparency whenever possible.
I will also point out that council likes to tell the citizens to “email us”. Coley noted again for the record that previous emails sent in April have not been responded to, after Councillor O’Reilly suggested she email her questions.
That is a serious issue, and council still seems completely unconcerned with providing answers. If the city cannot answer questions sent in April, they are not performing their duty and are demonstrating incompetence.
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in all likelihood an insurance company.
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