At least one Kamloops Councillor is suggesting the “nuclear option” to remove the Mayor as the chair of future open meetings is a tool they could use again.

Councillor Stephen Karpuk says he wasn’t happy invoking Section 132 of the Community Charter to remove Reid Hamer-Jackson from his role as chair on Tuesday, but argues it was needed to keep the business of the city moving forward.

“To make sure that our City business gets done in a way that its supposed to, effective, efficient, and that our time spent there is well spent, including our staff time which we’re paying them to be there for,” said Karpuk in an interview with Radio NL on Wednesday.  “We have to make sure we’re doing this right.”

Karpuk says its a move he doesn’t want to make again, but suggests it remains an option.

“It’s a business meeting. This is not a personal, I’m going to grudge everything out and lay it out before everybody. No. This is a business meeting,” said Karpuk.  “We’re here for what it is, and we need to move forward with that. So, will we use it again? I hope not.”

Karpuk says the rest of council is looking at options to try to keeping working with the Mayor.

“We have looked at lots of different things, I’m sure we’ll be discussing here more publicly as the days and weeks proceed,” argued Karpuk.  “But when you’ve tried just about everything, as Mr. Braun says, and you haven’t seen change, I don’t expect change now.”

While the Mayor did stay on through the remainder of the open council session on Tuesday after being relieved of his duties as chair, Karpuk says Hamer-Jackson did not attend the closed session or the evening public hearings.