Kamloops council pauses public podium time for two months

Kamloops council is taking a break from its weekly question period. Months after someone streamed pornography into a council meeting through Zoom, city council voted on Jan. 14 to press pause on a segment dedicated to questions from the public. It was an incident that led councillor...

Kamloops council pauses public podium time for two months
Kamloops council is taking a break from its weekly question period. Months after someone streamed pornography into a council meeting through Zoom, city council voted on Jan. 14 to press pause on a segment dedicated to questions from the public. It was an incident that led councillor Bill Sarai to first suggest public inquiries be removed entirely, but it came after months of public participation that sometimes became adversarial to council and sometimes critical of individual politicians or city staff. Though the question of what to do with public inquiries has been floating around the council table since October https://infotel.ca/newsitem/kamloops-council-faces-outcry-postpones-decision-on-public-inquiries-at-meetings/it106943 , they couldn't come to a consensus this week. "If we are looking for a perfect way to do this, we will never find it," councillor Mike O'Reilly said following more than an hour of debate. Councillor Margot Middleton's suggestion that the proposed six-month pause be reduced to two months won the vote, with opposition from Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson and councillor Kelly Hall. READ MORE: Charges laid after botched cosmetic operations in Kamloops https://infotel.ca/newsitem/charges-laid-after-botched-cosmetic-operations-in-kamloops/it107795 "Why would we want to close off public inquiries until we come to some sort of a solution?" Hall said. He suggested they first come up with a long-term plan instead of taking a break without a plan in place. His criticism didn't win over most of his colleagues and the future of public time at the podium was sent back to a council committee to hash out details for a second time. Public inquiries is a time allotted, twice per meeting, for anyone with questions specifically related to subjects on the agenda. Approaches vary by city across the province, as do restrictions. New this election term is a five-minute limit at Kamloops meetings. Some cities require a check-in at the outset of a meeting and a list of speaking topics and others don't have an opportunity at all. Before the 2000s, Kamloops was among those without public podium time, but that changed under Mel Rothenburger's mayorship. It came with a more laissez-faire approach, aimed at questions but without stipulating that it should be related to that meeting's agenda. A following council would bring in the more stringent guideline and the time-limit then followed after Hamer-Jackson's mayoral election in 2022. He has been blamed by other councillors as the reason for an unruly shift at Kamloops city council meetings. READ MORE: Kelowna's unemployment rate spiked at the end of 2024 https://infotel.ca/newsitem/kelownas-unemployment-rate-spiked-at-the-end-of-2024/it107794 Council's appetite on Jan. 14 generally showed a reluctance to shut out public inquiries entirely and the temporary measure came with a disagreement about the right path forward. O'Reilly suggested changes could be made over time with a trial-and-error approach, but Councillor Nancy Bepple's proposal that speakers be graced with two minutes to ask their questions, with 16 minutes allotted in total, was voted down. One councillor appeared to entertain the possibility that the two-month "breathing room" might make council meetings move so much more efficiently that they decide not to bring them back at all. "We might just say governance is working, emails are coming in and we're answering people's inquiries on topics on the agenda and everything's working fine," Councillor Bill Sarai said. Despite multiple staff reports and more than one debate among councillors, Middleton asked staff to return with another report and recommend three options to change the approach for question period. It will likely take several weeks before any material changes come to public inquiries aside from the two-month break. To contact a reporter for this story, email Levi Landry mailto:llandry@infonews.ca  or call 250-819-3723 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .