Another tumultuous day at Kamloops City Hall Tuesday as Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson was once-again removed as a chair of a meeting.

This, as he attempted – during his Mayor’s Report – to bring up concerns he says have been raise to him privately by city staff, who he says are complaining about a toxic work environment – comments which were then shut down.

“Before I begin, I’d like to make it very clear that I am not accusing anyone of anything. I want to make that real clear,” Hamer-Jackson said. “I’m not accusing anyone of anything, but I have been approached by people in confidence who are conflicted about tasks they’ve had to perform in a position with the City.”

“They feel that are working…” Hamer-Jackson added, when he was interrupted by Corporate Officer Maria Mazzotta.

“Mayor Hamer-Jackson, if you have you been approached on this in confidence, then it is not appropriate to be sharing during a regular public open council meeting,” Mazzotta said.

“Okay, then, what I’m going to do is take the word…I’ve been approached by people…” Hamer-Jackson said, when he cut off by Mazzotta again.

“Were those people relying on confidentiality?” she asked.

“Excuse me, if you want to speak I will ask you to speak okay?” Hamer-Jackson retorted.

“If you’re breaching confidentially, I am speaking up about it,” Mazzotta said.

“No I’m not, actually,” the mayor said.

“They’ve been asked to perform their positions in the city. They feel like they’re working in a toxic work environment and are being involved in unethical behaviour which in their opinion should not be happening,” Hamer-Jackson continued before Councillor Mike O’Reilly chimed in.

“This is an HR issue that we cannot discuss,” O’Reilly said. “If you want to bring this up, we can talk about this in closed, Mr. Mayor.”

“No no. In their opinion…” Hamer-Jackson said, at which point O’Reilly invoked Section 132 of the Community Charter to temporarily remove Hamer-Jackson as chair of the meeting.

“Call a vote to sustain the chair… Second… All in favour…you’ve lost confidence,” O’Reilly said. “Shut the mic please, and its Councillor Karpuk.”

Deputy Mayor for September, Stephen Karpuk, chaired the Councillor’s Report section of the meeting before Hamer-Jackson returned as chair.

This is the third time that Hamer-Jackson has been removed as the chair of an open council meeting.

Hamer-Jackson was temporarily removed as Chair during the Aug. 27 meeting as councillors grew frustrated as the Mayor allowed some members of the public to either exceed their allotted speaking time or talk about items not on the agenda.

In May of this year, Hamer-Jackson was also removed as chair in the closing stages of a meeting after he repeatedly refused to stop talking about confidential information regarding a city employee.

Mayor attempts to quash Build Kamloops AAP again

Hamer-Jackson also used his Mayor’s Report Tuesday to try and stop the ongoing Alternative Approval Process connected to Build Kamloops.

“I had a couple of questions. I would like to put a motion forward to cancel the AAP, if I could,” Hamer-Jackson said. “There’s many people in the city that I’ve talked to that haven’t heard about it and things like that. So I just thought I’d give it a go. Do I have a seconder?”

There was no seconder meaning the motion was not debated.

This is the second time in as many meetings where Hamer-Jackson has tied to bring and end to the process through which is City is hoping to get approval to borrow up to $275 million to build a performing arts centre and a four-sheet arena multiplex.

Residents have until 4 p.m. this Friday, Sept. 13, to voice their opposition to the borrowing.