Kamloops councillors have stripped the mayor of his ability to speak on behalf of the city.

In a release of information from a closed session on May 14th, council has confirmed it no longer allows Reid Hamer-Jackson to be the source of communication for council.

“Mayor Hamer-Jackson has repeatedly demonstrated that he is not willing to reflect the will of Council in accordance with his statutory and common law obligations,” states a resolution from the closed session. “As a result, the member of Council who assumes the role of Deputy Mayor for the month in question is the official spokesperson for Council and for the municipal corporation for that month.”

The move also includes inter-city and external communication outside of Kamloops.

“Council directs the Deputy Mayor, as designated from month to month, to deliver letters to all levels of government, applicable governmental agencies, and applicable community partners, including the City’s Business Improvement Associations and the Chamber of Commerce, advising that the Mayor does not speak on behalf of Council or the City of Kamloops and that official communications should be directed to the Deputy Mayor and Council,” the resolution continues.

The move also forces Reid Hamer-Jackson to execute his duties as the Mayor in a timely fashion.

“Whenever Mayor Hamer-Jackson has, within forty-eight hours of being asked to execute municipal instruments and records, neglected, or refused to do so, he shall be deemed ‘absent or unable to act’ within the meaning of section 9.1(a) of the Council Procedure Bylaw No. 59 and subsection 130(3) of the Community Charter, whereupon the Deputy Mayor for the month in question is authorized to execute such municipal instruments and records,” states the resolution.

Councillor Stephen Karpuk told Radio NL that his latest move is a continuation of recommendations laid out in municipal adviser Henry Braun’s report.

“Given a track record history of some of challenges that we face in some areas that we’ve decided this is probably the most prudent way to make sure the corporation and the city moves forward in doing the business we need to do,” Karpuk said.

The report laid out 13 recommendations for all nine members of council, and 10 specifically for Mayor Hamer-Jackson, who Braun said was the root cause of the dysfunction at City Hall.

“The relationship between mayor and council is untenable and the status quo is not an option,” Braun said in council chambers on May 7, noting that while conflict among elected officials in not unique to Kamloops, the situation in Kamloops is “not normal.”

Coucillor Kelly Hall, the Deputy Mayor for May, told Radio NL the new sanctions come after “18 months of communication challenges and struggles.”

“It is the way that the communication needs to be handled moving forward for the city of Kamloops and for city council,” Hall said, of the decision to strip the Mayor of his role as the official spokesperson for city matters.

Hall said the move will give the City the “opportunity to communicate” with the provincial and federal governments, as well as with municipalities across the province.

“All cities throughout B.C. will understand that when they’re communicating with the city of Kamloops, they come through the deputy mayor,” Hall said. “We have a letter that is going out to all provincial agencies, all federal government agencies as well as local business agencies and businesses saying ‘here is how the communication structure will be moving forward for the City of Kamloops.’ It will be through the deputy mayor.”

“So, if you have a ground turning ceremony that you want representation, it’ll be the deputy mayor that will come and do the speech. If you’ve got a ribbon cutting it’ll be the deputy mayor.”

“The mayor is still welcome to come and be present, but there will be no speaking opportunity,” Hall added.

Councillors previously called on the Mayor to resign, though that vote was symbolic, as no one – not even the Minister of Municipal Affairs – can remove an elected official from office.

Mayor contends council wants him out

Speaking to Radio NL, Hamer-Jackson said he hasn’t fully reviewed the new sanctions. He walked out of Tuesday’s closed council meeting when Hall began to read the sanctions out.

“The intent of council was to have that discussion [about the upcoming sanctions] in closed when I was reading the letter, but unfortunately, I got into the preamble about why we were sending out the letter and the mayor got cup and recused himself saying ‘he needed to get some legal advice,'” Hall said.

“I found it really ironic because at that point in time I hadn’t even got into the letter itself, so I don’t know what kind of legal advice he was going to go and seek because I got maybe a sentence into it, and he was gone.”

Asked if he can continue to work with council, Hamer-Jackson suggests he’s been attacked by others around the council table since the start of his term.

“I mean, they probably would have liked to have [done] this the night of the election,” Hamer-Jackson told Radio NL in an interview. “The councillors, obviously, want me to resign. Councillor Hall said it yesterday in public that he wants me to resign. I don’t have the capacity. I don’t know what gives him such much more capacity.”

Hamer-Jackson says the new sanctions “are what they are,” and says he’s not overly worried about any financial penalties being brought in by council down the line, saying he didn’t get into the job to make money.

“If I’ve got to donate a bunch of money to the community by using it in legal fees, that’s what I’ll do,” argued Hamer-Jackson, who is currently contracting lawyers to push back against harassment allegations made against him. “I’ve made a good living in this community. I love this community. If I’ve got to donate towards it to get a safer community and accountability, then that’s what I’m gonna do.”

The Mayor has said he has no intention of stepping down, and says he plans to continue trying to attain his campaign goal of creating a safer Kamloops.