ROTHENBURGER – Do we all feel better about Kamloops after this past week?

SO DO WE ALL FEEL better about the state of City Hall, and the city, than we did a week ago? Do we feel more confident about the direction in which the city is heading, more trusting of and confident in City governance?

I ask, because I’m wondering about the point of three important news events: the vandalization of Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson’s place of business, the tasteless news release about former CAO David Trawin, and the mayor’s new lawsuit against Coun. Katie Neustaeter.

There certainly is no obvious point to the vicious ransacking of Hamer-Jackson’s Tru Market car lot on Victoria Street West. There was no money in the place. Things of value — office equipment, tools and so on — were left untouched, or were trashed along with everything else.

Police are on the case but have no clear leads yet, at least not that they’re talking about. Speculation is rampant about the motive. Could have been random. Could have been somebody with a grudge against the mayor. Maybe just somebody out of control on street drugs.

Whoever it was, they were determined, thorough, and had time on their hands.

And, by the way, no councillors offered the mayor sympathy or support over it. The only concern they raised was whether the mayor had left City papers in the building. (He says he didn’t.)

As for the media, why they largely ignored the incident until days later remains a mystery of its own. I should mention that Marcella Bernardo of CBC Daybreak pinged me yesterday to say the program did do a story on it the day after it was discovered, so good for them.

So is the city a better place in any way due to all of this? Of course not.

And then there’s the City Hall news release about now-former CAO David Trawin. He hasn’t been on the job as CAO for more than a year, and is officially off the payroll as of June, according to the belated release issued Thursday.

I have a lot of respect for David Trawin; I worked with him for a couple of years when he was the engineering services director way back when. He is, by nature, a facilitator, a peace maker, rather than a fighter. At times he formally facilitated discussions on various issues and was very good at directing them towards resolution.

He was, though, a somewhat surprising choice to succeed Randy Diehl as chief administrative officer (he was chosen over David Duckworth, who left Kamloops a short time later and has served for several years as CAO of the City of Calgary. ‘Ducky’ made the news this week for readily disclosing his $410,000 salary in the midst of a debate within the council and the public over transparency.)

Trawin was always accessible as the Kamloops CAO to other staff, the media and the public. Maybe he didn’t possess the toughness of some CAOs of the past but his loss is definitely, well, a loss.

However, the news release was ill-advised. Did the inclusion of a lengthy section blaming Hamer-Jackson for Trawin’s departure, and yet another rehash of the mayor’s supposed poor behaviour, do anyone any good? Or did it simply scrape off old sores?

Hamer-Jackson, for his part, strenuously denies he had anything to do with Trawin’s leave of absence or his eventual departure, raising again the claim that he once threatened to fire Trawin, who later confirmed in a text that it had never happened.

By the way, the news release dropped into my email box at 2:44 p.m. Thursday. It included no contact name, and was simply identified as an “update” on Trawin from “City Hall.” The mayor received his at 2:33. It included Coun. Mike O’Reilly as the contact.

The release said that, for privacy reasons, there would be no further comment from City Hall. After which, O’Reilly proceeded to talk at length in media interviews about the need for “transparency.” Then Trawin himself told Castanet he would like to have returned but that his health didn’t allow it.

As for Hamer-Jackson’s new lawsuit against Neustaeter, revealed in a story that CHNL broke on Friday, well, I don’t know what to think. The suit claims Neustaeter made defamatory comments about an incident involving a washroom break.

Hamer-Jackson’s lawsuit says he saw Neustaeter exit a restricted area in City Hall in May of 2024 and wondered why, since security measures limit council members’ movements around the building, but was told by operations director Jen Fretz she had escorted Neustaeter to a washroom. Fretz copied the reply to all of council.

The statement of claim says Neustaeter responded to the group accusing the mayor of “surreptitiously tracking her movements, documenting when she uses the bathroom engaging in creepy behaviour and being an unsafe person.”

This was repeated a short time later in a meeting with council and staff, the claim says.

Neustaeter’s response to an inquiry from me on Friday was “No comment,” though she released a statement to mainstream media in which she said “I expect Mayor Reid-Hamer Jackson will continue his public persecution of me as long as I keep speaking the truth about his behaviour — I accept that as a consequence of standing up to his relentless bullying and harassment. In my opinion, the claim itself is exaggerated, inaccurate, and only makes him look worse again.”

When I asked the mayor about his reasons for filing a new lawsuit, he basically said it’s a matter of protecting his reputation. What would you do, he asked rhetorically, if someone called you “creepy”?

“I don’t monitor people’s bathroom visits. I am not creepy. I’ve been married 37 years.”

He said he’d tried to remedy the situation via a Code of Conduct complaint but it was dismissed.

But what about the fact he’s in debt and facing claims by lawyers he owes them money? How can he afford another lawsuit?

“For starters, when I sell my assets, I’ll be OK.” The main asset being the Tru Market property, which is up for sale.

The allegations, of course, have yet to be tested in court but, again, what good do all of these latest headlines do for Kamloops? Now, more than ever, a ceasefire is needed at City Hall. Sadly, it got even further away this week.

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.