
Nine members of Kamloops City Council elected in late 2022/via City of Kamloops
Despite expectations by some that a “healthy discussion” was possible at Tuesday’s Kamloops City Council meeting connected to accountability, instead it quickly unraveled into a tense and, at times, hostile exchange, ending with Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson’s motion for a third-party forensic audit of City Hall failing to make it off the ground.
The motion — a three-page call for a sweeping, independent audit of almost all City of Kamloops departments and management practices — became the latest in a series of initiatives by Hamer-Jackson that have failed to gain traction around “the horseshoe.”
In a lengthy preamble, Hamer-Jackson attempted to go around the room to try to get each member of council to publicly state — before a vote on his motion was called — why each member of council would not support his efforts.
Eventually asked by the City’s Corporate Officer about his approach to the debate, Hamer-Jackson would go on to cite concerns from citizens about rising taxes, cost overruns, lack of transparency, as well as — what he viewed — as questionable land deals as justification for the audit.
As has been the case for close to the last two years during open council meetings, the simmering conflict between Hamer-Jackson and the rest of council would once-again boil over, devolving into personal accusations, fiery rebuttals and procedural chaos, leaving many councillors visibly frustrated and the public session briefly teetering on collapse.
“This is not a witch hunt”
Mayor Hamer-Jackson maintains the audit would serve the public interest.
“This is not a witch hunt,” he interjected during his opening comments. “This is about restoring the trust of our citizens and being responsible stewards of their money.”

Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson at his council seat as Municipal Advisor Henry Braun delivers his report on May 7, 2024/via Brett Mineer
He pointed to several scenarios.
These included a $7.1 million purchase of the North Bridge Hotel that later fell into disuse and ran up security costs, as well as pay increases being given to senior management with the City, on top of a property sale involving Councillor Mike O’Reilly’s company Comet Industries.
“When I see people getting $90,000 salary increases over two years, it’s alarming,” Hamer-Jackson said. “That’s money from low-income families, people who are struggling to pay their taxes.”
He also referenced $1.1 million spent on what he described as “a path to nowhere” and the failed opportunity to leverage BC Housing to build affordable units on the North Bridge property.
“We ended up with a piece of dirt assessed at $2.3 million,” he argued.
“And that’s taxpayers’ money.”
“Who wrote it?” Councillors push back on accusations
Viewing the effort by Hamer-Jackson as both a smear campaign against council’s practices, as well as personal attacks against individual members, many of the councillors reacted sharply to what they viewed as a combative and accusatory tone.
Deputy Mayor Mike O’Reilly forcefully rejected the mayor’s suggestions of impropriety in a 2020 land sale involving Comet Industries, of which he is the Chief Operating Officer.
“You’re putting me in a position that feels like you’re trying to force a conflict,” snapped O’Reilly during the session, chastising the mayor for bringing up his private business interests in an open session of council.
“I’ve recused myself over 80 times from discussions involving my company,” said O’Reilly. “I’ve done everything by the book.”

Kamloops Councillor and Comet Industries CEO Mike O’Reilly/via Comet Industries
Councillor Katie Neustaeter called the mayor’s tactics “highly inappropriate.”
“This is not how we conduct good governance. It’s disrespectful to the community charter, to this group, and to citizens who are watching.”
Other councillors echoed similar frustrations.
Councillor Kelly Hall, who had initially held out an ‘olive branch’ to the mayor by initially sponsoring a motion to get the Notice of Motion on the floor for debate, would ultimately condemn it.
“The question I have is — with respect to your Notice of Motion, Mr. Mayor is — who wrote it?” stated Hall when asked by the mayor during Hamer-Jackson’s opening salvo of questions to each councillor.
“It’s crafted by a group of henchmen that really want to try to tear down and burn down this City Hall, which is deplorable,” said Hall in a less-than-veiled accusation that Hamer-Jackson is being guided by forces behind the scenes.
Procedural breakdown and chaos in chambers
As tensions rose, the meeting at one point threatened to spiral out of control.
Several councillors accused the mayor of spreading misinformation and violating decorum.
“You’re out of order,” was repeated multiple times across the room.
At one point, calls to “ask the mayor to leave” and “call the question” rang out as members of council attempted to override the mayor’s role as chair of the meeting.
The mayor, unfazed, continued pressing his points.
“These are true numbers,” he said repeatedly, insisting that his claims were factually grounded.
At one point, when councillor Katie Neustaeter interjected to try to move the meeting forward, Hamer-Jackson declared her “out of order,” and attempted to have the Community Service Officer stationed at the meeting have Neustaeter ejected from the session.
While that did not happen, eventually a vote was seemingly called [the confusion within the room made it difficult to discern what was taking place], and Hamer-Jackson’s notice of motion died on the floor.
Audit dies, but issues live on
Despite the 30 minutes of upheaval toward the end of the Tuesday session, before the situation devolved completely, some members of council did express interest in seeing a review take place.
Councillor Nancy Bepple says while she applauded the underlying premise behind calling for more clarity, she pointed out that forensic audits are generally activated with a specific focus in mind.
Bepple suggested the mayor’s approach would need to be evidence-based.
“You’ve listed general municipal functions without identifying a specific problem,” she said.
“Bring back something concrete, and I’ll consider supporting it.”
Tuesday’s outcome adds to a growing list of mayoral motions that have failed to gain traction since the schism began forming between Hamer-Jackson and the rest of council not long after the current council came into office.
While the mayor insists his efforts to bring up issues of council accountability on various issues are a reflection of “citizen concern,” open council meetings have become increasingly fractious.
BC’s Municipal Affairs Minister Ravi Kahlon has been vocal in his concern the situation is starting to erode the reputation of Kamloops on both a provincial and national level.
Kahlon’s Ministry has been working behind the scenes for over the past year on a process — initiated by Premier David Eby’s Cabinet and former Minister Anne Kang — to draft changes to the Municipal Affairs Act to try to find ways around the discord in Kamloops and a number of other communities in BC.
However, those changes — which may involve giving either the province or individual local levels of government more power to intervene in situations like the one in Kamloops — are not expected to be enshrined into law until after the next round of local elections in BC.
That vote isn’t due to take place until the fall of 2026.

Then-Housing Minister and now also Municipal Affairs Minister Ravi Kahlon meeting with members of Kamloops Council in summer of 2024 after announcing BC Builds project for Columbia Precinct lands off Columbia/via Instagram
–With files from Paul James