Pausing public inquiries?

Public inquiries at Kamloops council meetings could be placed on a six-month pause over concerns about continuous disruptive behaviour displayed at the podium.

Council’s governance committee discussed the possibility of implementing specific limits or restrictions on inquiries instead, but ultimately recommended doing away with the two public inquiries portions on a temporary basis.

The recommendation, along with some other procedural adjustments, will be put before council for final approval at a later date.

Coun. Katie Neustaeter said she felt the decision was unfortunate, but implementing restrictions would end up being an undue burden for the city’s legislative services staff — and the end result might not see any meaningful change.

“I would prefer a space that is safe for a six-year-old and a 90-year-old and everyone in between, then ensuring that the same 12 people can come back and cause chaos in this space, and I'm a little worried that that is what we will be left with,” Neustaeter said.

“I personally am hearing [legislative services] say, of course, we're willing to do that, of course, we'll find a way. It's going to take significant resources, a lot of bodies, a lot of brains — and it'll still just be ripped apart in bad faith.”

The public inquiries section — which is different from public hearings or public submissions on city business like land use or zoning — allowed people to address council for five minutes with a question about matters on the meeting agenda.

Many municipalities do not allow for public inquiries at all, and several others have instituted strict guidelines for such submissions.

The recommendation to remove public inquiries from the agenda came forward to council last month following a meeting where a Zoom user broadcast pornography to people watching in city hall and online.

However, members of the public have frequently used speaking time to level accusations and talk about conspiracy theories with little pushback from the chair, Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson. Some who attend meetings have openly jeered and mocked members of council and city staff.

Coun. Bill Sarai said he felt the decision to remove public inquiries hasn’t been taken lightly — by this council, and also by the other municipalities who have made a similar step.

The councillor, who is on his second term, said there are other ways of getting in contact with council members to ask questions or voice an opinion.

“I firmly believe, six years in now, that there's never been anybody that's approached me and said, ‘I can't get a hold of you, I didn't get an answer, I didn't get a question answered,’” Sarai said.

He noted ultimately, Tuesday meetings are when council needs to do city business, noting people can still reach out if they read the meeting agenda and staff reports and want to weigh in.

“Send us an email, let us know about it, because that's all they're doing there," he said.

"They're informing us of something that's not in the report. There's other ways of doing that. They don't have to come to the podium.”