EDITORIAL – Full slate of incumbents sets up fascinating choice for voters
Neustaeter speaks at news conference called by councillors in March 2023. (Image: Mel Rothenburger file photo)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
NOW THAT Katie Neustaeter has announced her candidacy for a second term on Kamloops City council, voters will have a full slate of incumbents to think about, along with newcomers, in the October civic election.
It had been widely speculated that she’d seek the mayoralty. Only she knows the reason or reasons she didn’t — maybe she decided her chances weren’t good enough, maybe she didn’t want to have to leave her job, maybe being mayor is simply something she doesn’t want to do. Whatever, there will be seven incumbents running for councillor seats, two for mayor.
Neustaeter, Kelly Hall, Bill Sarai, Nancy Bepple, Dale Bass, Stephen Karpuk and Margot Middleton are all running again for a council seat, while Mike O’Reilly and Reid Hamer-Jackson will contest the mayoralty. That means there’s a guarantee of only one incumbent being defeated; the rest is up to voters.
Apparently, participating in a council that has been dysfunctional, disrespectful and disruptive is a rewarding enough experience to make them all want to do it again. They certainly don’t appear to have enjoyed it all that much.
The most baffling choice to run again is Bill Sarai. This is the man who had to issue a public apology after admitting he lied about surreptitiously taping an argument with the mayor. And, he once proposed refusing funding to community organizations that are critical of council.
He should have resigned long ago, but he carries on, and now believes he deserves to be re-elected.
There will, of course, be a large roster of challengers to take on the incumbents. Electors will have to decide who can return sanity to the council table, bring the public back into the conversation, and make progress on key issues rather than writing letters.
Whether some or all of the incumbents fit that bill will be a fascinating judgment to be made on Oct. 17. Sadly, it may be more about who to blame than about who has the ability to perform well on behalf of taxpayers.
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.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I’d like to know a name by name list of every member of Council, regarding their vote, for or against stalling the RCMP station construction decision until after the election, with emphasis on who either said explicitly they would or implied they would, or historically would probably use the Alternate Approval Process to do so.
I want to know the names that after the public outcry against the use … and after the extreme overuse of the AAP … want to use it again, but wait for after the election to do so, so they dont suffer the voter rejection during the election.
I will not vote for any of them. The very idea of setting the decision aside to enact the AAP once they are safe in their job … means they dont get the job at all in my mind.
If it is true that there is no other mayoral candidate, the only person I am stuck with running for top job … even though he likes the AAP, is Mike O’Reilly … and if given no other choice, I gonna do what I have to … hopefully the new slate of Council will shut down use of the AAP. Its a risk, but I’ll take it.
The other mayoral candidate … just shouldnt be … that is all.
I dont care if he’s ‘a nice guy’, he cant work with others at all,
and has cost us a fortune. This has to end, thats the priority.
I’d still like to see that list tho.
No news articles I have seen lay out that RCMP building vote,
person by person.
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What about Nelly Dever? She has experience as a past councilor, she actively opposed the proposal to turn part of Riverside Park into a parkade and also strongly opposed holding the short-notice, big-budget AAPs for the PAC and rinks and was very active in this regard. Plus, she was known during her previous council term for strict oversight of public spending.
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What happened to Nelly Dever? I thought she was running for Mayor????
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Hi Armchair Mayor!
It seems like a whole lot of people except Reid Hamer-Jackson knew about the public shaming that was to take place in council chambers at City Hall that fateful St. Patrick’s Day.
Some time after this happened, I emailed the admin folks at the regional district and asked if they knew the members of Kamloops City council who had been present at their strategic planning meeting had left the building. I asked if these folks were going to be paid for being present at the meeting when they had actually left to participate in the public shaming. I received no reply.
It seemed that several media folks were present for the public shaming. Had they been informed and received an invitation to attend?
Were there any staff members from administration present at the public shaming?
Who had the key to let this band of 8 into the council chambers to perform this public shaming?
Had everyone simply forgotten to invite Reid Hamer-Jackson to at least be in attendance and witness what was being said about him in such a shameful, cowardly manner? It is my belief that the elected Mayor remained at the strategic planning meeting at the regional district and was left totally in the dark about his public shaming.
There is a groundswell movement to have no incumbents elected this time around. Take a good close look at the bunch of hoodlums and tell me if even ONE of them deserves to get as much as one vote from a member of the public.
No incumbents, Armchair Mayor.
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I asked some questions about this at the first and second April/23 public meetings.
I asked then-CAO Trawin 2 questions:
I also asked Coun. Neustaeter if there had been a meeting to draft the statement. She replied “No,” which begged the question of how all councilors had agreed on the wording. When I expressed disbelief, she said, “No is a complete sentence,” which seemed arrogant and dismissive, given the circumstances.
A subsequent Code of Conduct investigation (the last allowed the public before council changed the bylaw to exclude the public from the process) determined that yes, there was indeed a meeting to draft the statement but Coun. Neustaeter was ignorant of the definition of a meeting and the rules regarding the same, and so did not mislead me on purpose.
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I hope no incumbents are returned. Regardless of any provocation they may claim, they have shown themselves at their worst and none of them have earned the right to another term imo.
At the next election, to avoid incumbents getting in due to name-recognition, I hope people vote only for the candidates they really trust to represent their views on council.
If this is only one checked box, so be it—the ballot is still valid. This selective voting helps to get new faces on a council.
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oh my God, so our choice for Mayor is either hammer Jackson or Mike O’Reilly, Surely there was somebody better out there. Mike oreilly it is then.
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Or Nelly Dever…….so far.
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NI. They do not respect the voters.
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Humility, shame, and the ability to self-reflect are not qualities found in abundance with this lot.
Hubris, self-importance, arrogance, and Dunning-Kruger appear to be the minimum prerequisite.
Imagine another term with any of these incumbents?
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