ROTHENBURGER – Latest Sarai-RHJ clash fortunately didn’t taint Hot Nite

IN THE INTERESTS of telling both sides of the story, I’ll do my best to describe the circumstances of the confrontation between Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson and Coun. Bill Sarai at Hot Nite in the City on Saturday.

Coun. Sarai doesn’t speak to me (“I am not interested in engaging with you on any topic”) so I can’t give you anything directly from him but InfoNews published an article about it today quoting him as saying “He (Hamer-Jackson) just lost it” and that the mayor said, “You guys are lying pieces of shit. You’re a motherfucker, piece of shit.”

I haven’t been able to confirm that language but there was certainly some kind of incident at the handing out of awards. The mayor wanted to do the announcing. Sarai wanted to do it. Push came to shove, verbally at least.

“I do recall calling him a liar,” Hamer-Jackson acknowledged today, and added that the context was previous things Sarai has said about alleged claims against the mayor.

According to InfoNews, Sarai was heckled by some members of the crowd when he was on stage and he found it “scary.” At his request, says the article, City protection services director Ken Uzeloc was called in, and RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley was also there.

The description of the incident provided to me by Hot Nite founder Ron Popoff provides an important perspective, and I’ll get into that in a moment.

First, some background is important for context.

The feud between Hamer-Jackson and Sarai is well-known, having begun when the mayor described Sarai as a “snake” in a text early in the term and culminating in Sarai’s claims about an argument between the two being totally discredited, and Sarai having to issue a public apology this past spring for lying about it and breaking his oath of office.

That was, of course, over Sarai’s clandestine taping and selective editing of the conversation and his claim that someone else had made the recording, until he was interviewed by police about it.

Fast forward, and Sarai is deputy mayor for the month of August. These days, whichever councillor is the designated deputy mayor each month is, by decree of council, the City’s official spokesperson at public events. That’s one of the penalties that was handed out to the mayor in the wake of the so-called Braun report.

In my view, any organization has a right to ask anyone they want to speak or do other duties at one of their events. Hot Nite could have asked Joe Blow to hand out awards or announce winners and there isn’t a thing City Hall should have had to say about it.

Indeed, Ron Popoff asked Hamer-Jackson months ago to announce the awards at Hot Nite, a ceremony that happens as the event winds down. Two days before Hot Nite, however, he got a call from Sarai saying that he would be doing it because Hamer-Jackson isn’t the City’s official spokesperson.

Popoff said OK, and informed the mayor. The mayor attended, though, and before the ceremony, he and Sarai encountered each other on the street near the Don’s Auto Towing flatdeck that acts as the stage for the awards announcements.

That’s when things apparently got hot, but it didn’t erupt during the ceremony itself. It was, rather, a continuation of the feud between the two, not on stage but on the pavement.

“Apparently there were nasty words passed and I’m not going into that,” Popoff told me today. But, he says, “It’s not that they were yelling at each other. Apparently Bill accused Reid of using profanity and that’s between Reid and Bill as far as I’m concerned.”

Perhaps “four or five people” were in earshot, he says. At any rate, the ceremony came off without it being part of any disruption. Popoff asked Hamer-Jackson to hand out the Mayor’s Choice trophy, which he did, while Sarai made the announcements.

“Would you give it to the first in command or would you give it to the second in command?” to hand out the mayor’s trophy, he reasons.

MLAs Peter Milobar and Ward Stamer, and MP Frank Caputo were also there to hand out their own awards.

As for the presence of Supt. Jeff Pelley, he was there because he was a judge for the car show.

There’s no excuse for this little incident, whether it was brief or protracted, loud or quiet, to have taken place. If Hot Nite wanted the mayor to be there, Sarai and City Hall should have stayed out of it, but the mayor shouldn’t have engaged with Sarai, either.

Of course the mayor shouldn’t be using any kind of foul language in public but if not for council’s stupid policy of trying to muzzle him, it would never have happened. Sarai and Hamer-Jackson should simply avoid any communication with each other under any circumstances, in private or in public.

The source for turning it into a headline isn’t clear but while this latest brief skirmish didn’t turn into a major incident for Hot Nite, it was one the event could well do without. As Ron Popoff says, “It was an awesome car show. Hot Nite doesn’t need politics.”

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.