EDITORIAL – Once again, there’s been a failure to communicate at City Hall

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THE FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE continues at City Hall.

Deputy Mayor for June, Mike O’Reilly, sat in the chair usually occupied by Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson at Tuesday’s City council meeting and announced: “For the record and for the public’s awareness, we started late. Mayor Hamer-Jackson did not show up to the meeting today, nor did he give us notice he was not going to be here today.”

As you may know, I posted a column Tuesday morning saying there was a good chance he’d miss the meeting because his wife Lori is in hospital seriously ill with pneumonia. I don’t expect the councillor to check in every morning to see what the Armchair Mayor has to say but Hamer-Jackson informs me he texted O’Reilly several times between 10:02 a.m. and 1:13 p.m. telling O’Reilly “I’m going to need you or one of the deputy Mayors to chair the open meeting due in part to your personal behaviour, actions and inactions. Mayor Hamer-Jackson.”

That may sound rather vague, but the mayor explains that O’Reilly was previously aware of Lori Hamer-Jackson’s illness. The reference to “your personal behaviour” and so on was about stress caused by conflict situations between the mayor and council, he told me last night.

Indeed, it’s not atypical of the manner in which Hamer-Jackson and O’Reilly communicate.

A second text asked O’Reilly to confirm that he received the first one and clarified that he would be at his wife’s bedside. The last text again asked for confirmation, says the mayor.

Hamer-Jackson also talked with INFOnews, and his decision to go public about this entire situation is characteristic of his unfettered approach to things.

As of shortly after 7:30 a.m. today, I haven’t heard from O’Reilly on the matter, though I’ve emailed him at two different addresses and also sent a text on Tuesday. I guess the mayor and I have similar luck in attempting to get a response from the man who wants to succeed Hamer-Jackson as mayor, or maybe it’s all one of those mysteries of the blogosphere. If I do hear from him I’ll get back to you.

(You’ll probably recall the dispute in March over whether Coun. Margot Middleton had received texts from Hamer-Jackson regarding files requested in connection with an FOI application from INFOnews. Same sort of situation.)

Who knows what happened with this one, and why O’Reilly ended up publicly announcing that no notice or explanation of the mayor’s absence had been received. We do know communication around the horseshoe is in a bit of a mess.

Aside from a commitment to dealing with each other in a more civil manner, the issue shouldn’t be hard to resolve. First, a revamp of restrictions on how the mayor is allowed to communicate. That could include the simple practice of copying communication between Hamer-Jackson and deputy mayors regarding attendance at meetings to corporate officer Maria Mazzotta.

That way, any confusion over whether the mayor would be attending Tuesday’s meeting would have been removed.

And, by the way, it would behoove City Hall via the deputy mayor to issue a supportive statement wishing the mayor and his wife well.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, writes for the Kamloops Chronicle and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and was 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.