Kamloops city council set to release results of internal investigation into an elected official

Kamloops city council expects to release at least part of an internal investigation into at least one of nine elected officials.

In an usual move, council announced in a news release today, Nov. 9, it's going to decide whether or not to impose sanctions or censure against the subject of a code of conduct investigation. The news release doesn't name the person being investigated nor does it say when the meeting will be held.

Although he isn't named, Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson said, "it's pretty obvious" the meeting is about him. He's been the subject of a code of conduct investigation since earlier this year and has since called for the report to be made public.

Despite his pleas to release the results of the internal investigation to himself and the public, that hasn't happened. He was instead given a letter related to the investigation and he was instructed not to share it with anyone.

"All I can say is its full of false allegations," he said.

The city hired an outside investigator earlier this year to probe multiple harassment complaints about the mayor.

"The municipal corporation has been forced to take extraordinary steps to protect certain members of staff from ongoing mistreatment and a hostile work environment at the hands of an elected official," councillor Mike O'Reilly told iNFOnews.ca in June.

Although O'Reilly wouldn't confirm details of the alleged harassment nor how many employees were affected, he said the complaints are entirely unrelated to the mayor's defamation lawsuit against fellow councillor Katie Neustaeter and privacy breaches when Hamer-Jackson took city personnel documents home.

Hamer-Jackson initially said he was not aware of the closed council meeting to discuss a code of conduct investigation, he later said council often isn't aware of the subject matter in closed meetings when voting to have one.

Councillor Stephen Karpuk told iNFOnews.ca council has been getting less information in advance of closed council meetings because of information leaks.

"I believe staff have taken it upon themselves to make sure the contents of closed meetings are not known until we are in that meeting," Coun. Karpuk said. "It does create some challenges for us to digest and ruminate on the information at hand, but until such a time as the leaks are stemmed, this is the way that we can stop dissemination of information that should be kept in closed."

Council voted at this week's meeting, for example, to convene a closed meeting. All that was revealed in the public meeting is that it had to remain in-camera because the topic relates to labour relations and the receipt of legal advice.

That meeting, likely to be the one in reference to the investigation, will be held on Nov. 21.

Council will then release what parts of the investigation report it approves for public consumption within 30 days, along with the censures or sanctions it imposes, if councillors agree on any.

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