Reid Hamer-Jackson brought the media and a number of supporters together Monday morning to announce that he is staying on as Mayor of Kamloops, and that he plans to seek a second term in office.
Hamer-Jackson called a news conference at the scenic lookout on Columbia Street West to discuss issues connected to “resignation consideration” but in an about-face Monday, he said he never had any intention of stepping down.
“I was back and forth,” Hamer-Jackson said, when asked how long he considered resigning. “It’s back and forth. You know, I’ve never really – I guess I never really considered it, and with the support of the emails and texts and all that stuff, its been really good.”
Hamer-Jackson also announced Monday that he will run again in the next municipal election, which is scheduled for Oct. 2026, more than two years from now.
“Some respected citizens of the community who have the same goals as I do – a safer, vibrant community, and accountability – have expressed interest in running for council in the next municipal election if I seek another term as mayor,” Hamer-Jackson said.
“For these reasons and much consideration I have decided that I must stay on as mayor and run in the next municipal election,” he added, to cheers and chants of “council must go.”
In a prepared speech, Hamer-Jackson said he “thought long and hard” about his past 22 months in office, noting his family, friends, and members of the public have weighed in. He also said had been physically assaulted in June but declined to give further details citing a police investigation.
“I’ve been under fire prior to Day One,” Hamer-Jackson said. “Most all of my motions have been voted down, or worse, not even seconded so that we could at least have a public discussion. All my motions were intended to contribute to a safer community and a more fiscally responsible city hall.”
Hamer-Jackson has previously faced a call to resign from fellow councillors in the wake of the Braun report which identified the Mayor as the cause of much of the ongoing dysfunction at City Hall.
Citing the findings of the Braun report, Council voted in May to remove the Mayor as the City’s spokesperson for failing or refusing to execute the will of council as a whole.
In June, Hamer-Jackson’s salary was cut by 10 per cent for six months or until he apologizes for his “unwillingness to comply” with a resolution following a code of conduct violation connected to Councillor Katie Neustaeter, whom the Mayor is suing for libel and defamation.
The mayor is also no longer allowed to attend closed committee meetings because of “continued and repeated privacy breaches” that pose legal risks to the city.
“It’s frustrating have to deal with allegation after allegation and then be muffled by council when I try to set the record straight with the truth,” Hamer-Jackson said, in his statement Monday.
“I think Kamloops needs someone at City Hall who isn’t satisfied with just saying ‘it’s the same all over’ because it’s not. Who isn’t afraid to ask questions when city hall minsters recommend purchases or other course of action. Who wants the public to be involved in city decisions as much as possible,” Hamer-Jackson said.
Hamer-Jackson also pledged Monday that public safety, “accountability” at city hall, and prosperity will remain his goals while in office.
“I’ve been handcuffed since Day One, since a social agency sent an email to the CAO saying that I was defaming them,” Hamer-Jackson said during a media scrum. “I’ve been handcuffed since Day One and I think a lot of people, you know – there might be a lot of people who might want to look at, people who have been maybe breaching their fiduciary duty, or people who have been doing things that are unethical, things like that.”
“And I’m not accusing anybody of anything but they might want to look at early retirement or resignation.”
Asked if he thought about stepping down to run in a byelection to show he has the support of Kamloops residents, Hamer-Jackson said he considered it but he didn’t think councillors would resign their positions.
“We’ve got around 100,000 people and these councillors are pretty entrenched now,” he said. “Half of them have immediate family members that work for the city, and they’re in there. If I said I was going to resign and ask them to resign, it’d be like asking for 15 outreach workers 24 hours a day paid for by the government.”
Mayor targets Build Kamloops initiative, Radio NL’s Brett Mineer
Speaking during his media scrum, Hamer-Jackson also said he “still thinks” there needs to be a full referendum on the Build Kamloops initiative.
This is despite voting in favour of borrowing up to $275-million for the Centre for the Arts and the four-plex ice rink through the Alternative Approval Process.
“While I still believe from new information, I might call Section 131 for reconsideration,” Hamer-Jackson – who declined to be on the Build Kamloops committee – said. “I also think that we need to, we’ve needed ice I was on the board of minor hockey in 2009 and we needed ice. I cannot believe that do not have a conceptual design.”
He previously told Radio NL that he wants to see conceptual drawings for other Build Kamloops projects, in a bid to try and secure more grant funding for the projects.
“If we have more projects and we get a lot more federal and provincial money, we need the federal and provincial governments to step up, and if we have conceptual designs for ice rinks, for pools, for curling, if we’ve got a package to present, maybe we can get $275 million in grant funding,” Hamer-Jackson said Monday.
“I think we need to send the select committee back to the drawing board, and again, let’s open it up to the public. What’s with all these closed meetings?”
Build Kamloops Chair Mike O’Reilly told Radio NL that discussions around locations were happening behind closed doors to avoid speculation over real estate prices.
“The biggest reason that we can’t come public with things right now is a lot of the discussion revolves around location,” O’Reilly said in May. “The number one thing people want to know is ‘okay, what is the facility and where is it going to be?’ As you can imagine, when it comes to real estate deals, once speculation happens as to where a facility may go, then land prices increase.”
It’s also not the first time the mayor has proposed using grants more frequently, despite being told that it is never a guarantee given that a majority of grants are “oversubscribed.”
Hamer-Jackson also singled out and name-dropped Radio NL’s Brett Mineer on numerous instances Monday, in what seemed to be an attempt to incite his crowd of supporters against a member of the media.
“The reason he showed up is because he heard the word resignation,” Hamer-Jackson said, before asking Mineer to “back up a little.”
“I couldn’t believe you showed up, Brett,” Hamer-Jackson said a little later ahead of chants of “Brett, go home” from the mayor’s supporters. “You’re bad for this community. You’re bad. Anyway, Brett, could you please, everyone wants you to leave – so why don’t you just leave?”
I’m told the guy in white that was filming me off and on throughout the news conference is the Mayor’s son. He wasn’t the only one filming and taking pictures of me though. Many were – and they made sure I knew they were. The intent was to intimidate a critic.
— Brett Mineer (@MineerBrett) July 15, 2024
As noted by Levi Landry of iNFOnews.ca, several reporters surrounded Hamer-Jackson in the media scrum but Mineer was the only one who was singled out by the mayor and asked to move out of the way of his supporters.
As reporters (including me) closed in on #Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson, he singled out @MineerBrett to have him step back. Dozens of the mayor’s supporters then joined in to chant “Brett go home.” pic.twitter.com/URMBEovkTk
— Levi Landry (@LeviMLandry) July 15, 2024
Asked by Castanet Kamloops, if he was removing a journalist from a news conference, Hamer-Jackson said “no.”
“No, but I’d ask him to step back a bit because there’s a lot of other journalists and people that are trying to get in,” Hamer-Jackson said. “And he’s a very negative person in our community. He’s got nothing to say nice.”
News/Program Director’s note: Until such time as Reid Hamer-Jackson issues a public apology to Mr. Mineer, the Mayor will not be welcomed as a guest on Radio NL.
