Kamloops City Council is launching “an impartial and objective fact-finding investigation” into Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson’s claims that he has recorded conversations with City staff members without their knowledge or consent.
This is the second external investigation into the mayor relating bullying and harassment of staff since his election less than a year ago.
In a statement Wednesday, Councillor Kelly Hall, the appointed spokesperson on this matter, said the City “has a legal duty to provide a safe workplace for its employees, free of bullying and harassment.”
“At the September 5, 2023, open meeting of Council, Mayor Hamer-Jackson disclosed that a telephone conversation between him and CAO Trawin had been recorded without CAO Trawin’s knowledge and without his consent,” Hall said, in a statement.
“In subsequent media interviews, Mayor Hamer-Jackson has disclosed that the subject telephone conversation took place in his vehicle in the presence of his wife, and was in fact recorded by his wife without CAO Trawin’s knowledge and without his consent. In addition, Mayor Hamer-Jackson disclosed that on more than one occasion he has conducted telephone calls with others about municipal business in the presence of his wife, who has taken notes.”
The decision to launch the investigation was made in a closed council meeting on Sept. 26, the same day council voted to ask the Ministry of Municipal Affairs to send in a municipal adviser to help deal with “dysfunction and discord” that has plagued City Hall since the election last fall.
At that Sept. 26 meeting, Council voted to require that Hamer-Jackson turn over any audio recordings or transcripts of conversations with City staffers since he took office to Human Resources and Safety Director, Colleen Quigley, within 10 days. Hamer-Jackson is also required to turn over any notes of conversations with City staffers taken on his behalf by non-City representatives if the staff member was not told that a third-party was present.
Hamer-Jackson will also have to – in writing – confirm to Quigley that he has turned over all those materials and any copies without modifying it or provide “full and detailed particulars” of any recordings or notes he is unable to or unwilling to surrender.
He’ll also have to confirm that he hasn’t shared anything he’s not supposed to with people who do not represent the City of Kamloops, and if he has, to what extent that has happened.
City Councillors also voted Monday to retain an external investigator to look into the Mayor’s practices of speaking to – or recording – City staffers while in the presence of non-City representatives.
The investigation will document their findings in a report which will go to the City’s legal counsel. It is not clear what the investigation will cost taxpayers.
“As this is now an open investigation, Council will refrain from commenting further so as to avoid undermining the independence and integrity of that investigation,” Hall said, in his statement.
Hall did tell Radio NL on Thursday that an effort was made to discuss the matter with the mayor before the statement was released publicly. Hall says Hamer-Jackson refused to meet him and Councillor Margot Middleton when they went to meet with him at his office.
City to develop policy to prohibit recordings
Council also directed Quigley to draft a policy that will prohibit all members of Council from recording any conversation with City staffers – by phone or video – or conducting conversations with staff while non-staff members are present unless everyone consents to the practice.
“The Human Resources and Safety Department wishes to remind everyone that a person secretly or openly recording conversations of others in the workplace is cause for concern on several levels, not the least of which is damage to general morale,” a May 12 email sent to all City Councillors that was released Wednesday said.
“It is strictly prohibited at City of Kamloops worksites.”
The email went on to state that those actions violate the standards laid out in the city’s corporate policy HR-1-0 “Standards of Conduct” and “erode understanding and mutual respect in the workplace.”
“Employees who fail to comply with these standards or policies may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal,” the email stated.
This is not the first investigation into Mayor Hamer-Jackson. Radio NL and Kamloops This Week revealed that the Mayor is not allowed to meet with CAO David Trawin and three other city staff members without a third-party present.
You can read the entire resolution from Kamloops City Council made at the Sept. 26 meeting here.
