The head-butting between the Mayor of Kamloops and his council over town hall meetings flared up again on Tuesday as part of City Council.

Reid Hamer-Jackson put forward his Notice of Motion, calling for a town-hall — or KamTalk — meeting, saying city staff have informed him the session could take place sometime in early September.

His motion prompted pushback from a number of councillors, including Dale Bass, who argued his plan pushes back against a Council directive issued earlier in the year — before committees were dissolved — to have a committee create the terms-of-reference for what town hall meetings would look like.

“Your motion is ignoring the direction council agreed to in February,” argued Bass.  “Your motion is ignoring the actions staff have taken in response to that motion that was voted on in February.”

Hamer-Jackson pushed back, arguing the process should be moved along more quickly.

“Well that was February. Today is today. How many months ago was February,” shot back Hamer-Jackson.  “We could have this town hall, KamTalk meeting, in the second week of September.”

Other councillors also took aim at Hamer-Jackson’s push for the creation of a September town hall session, including Bill Sarai.

“I understand that you’re passionate about this. So are the 8 of us,” said Sarai during a heated exchange.

Hamer-Jackson then interjected during Sarai’s time by saying “ten months” — a reference to how long its been since the new Mayor and Council have been in-office without hosting a town hall meeting.

This prompted a strong retort from Sarai.

“I’m talking right now… and to correct you, Mr. Mayor, we would have had a town hall meeting six months ago if you didn’t disolve our committees and take our chairmanships away, and make your friends your committee people.”

In the end, council voted 8-1 to reject the Mayor’s pitch for a September town hall meeting.