Mayor moved into basement

The City of Kamloops is moving Mayor Reid-Hamer Jackson's office to the basement of city hall in a move council says is being made "to protect staff" from bullying and harassment.

Coun. Mike O’Reilly told Castanet Kamloops the mayor has until Oct. 22 to move his personal belongings to his new office — an old public boardroom located beneath council chambers that hasn’t been used in years.

O’Reilly told Castanet council is taking the measure to protect staff from the mayor’s bullying and harassment.

"There have been substantiated complaints, and there continue to be ongoing investigations into the mayor's inappropriate treatment of staff,” he said.

O'Reilly said there are currently four active WorkSafeBC complaints against the mayor from staff and, outside of that, there are numerous code-of-conduct complaints against him still outstanding.

O’Reilly said council has taken measures to date to curb the mayor’s behaviour, such as restricting key fob access for all of council at city hall and access to certain buildings, but that has does not appear to have deterred the mayor’s behaviour and staff continue to report not feeling safe to come to work due to the mayor’s presence.

“His inappropriate conduct towards staff continues, and staff continue to feel unsafe at work because of the mayor's behaviour, and that exposes the city to legal risk," he said.

O’Reilly said the city has a legal obligation to provide a safe workplace for its employees.

“It's important to be clear that moving his office is not a sanction by any means,” he said. “It is a protective measure to shield our staff and ensure workplace safety in accordance with the city's legal obligations.”

O’Reilly said the measure is also a response to the security and safety risk assessment conducted at city hall earlier this year. He said that report identified a need to address the current workplace violence and harassment climate at city hall that has come from the mayor’s actions towards staff.

“And council took these recommendations very seriously,” he said.

Mayor aware of move

The mayor has received notification of the measure. He said he first learned about it from a reporter and, shortly after that, he received an email from the deputy mayor titled private and confidential — which he has not opened.

The mayor said he doesn’t intend to open the email.

“Then it becomes privileged and confidential, so then I can't talk about it — but I can talk about everything I've been learning from you guys, from the media and things like that,” he said. “But I'm not going to open a heading that says privilege and confidential so that I'm muzzled again.”

As of Thursday evening, Hamer-Jackson said he hadn’t been in his office for “a few days.”

“I think it’s a joke,” the mayor told Castanet Kamloops. “I haven't had staff near me for, oh, I can't remember how many months — a long time ago.”

Hamer-Jackson said he wants to see evidence of staff complaints against him.

“Impossible. I walk through my door, there is no staff around me. I take papers to legislative services. They go through a window where there's a plexiglass between. What staff? This is the whole thing — these allegations have got to stop,” he said.

Communication restrictions have been put in place between the mayor and some city staff members after an external investigator found the mayor violated council's code of conduct on multiple occasions by displaying demeaning and disrespectful behaviour towards the complainants. The mayor has dismissed the contents of the report, saying the allegations are false and containing innuendo.

The mayor’s power to suspend certain staff members has also been revoked after he suddenly decided to suspend the city’s acting CAO — a decision quickly reversed by the rest of council.

Earlier this spring, mayor and council’s executive assistant was moved from her desk outside the mayor’s office.

Castanet has learned council’s EA may be moving back to her desk outside the mayor’s soon-to-be former office as a result of him being moved a floor below.

O’Reilly was not able to comment on that specific measures at this time.

“At this point, what I can say is that the mayor's office has been moved to protect staff,” he said.

New office will be 'nice'

O’Reilly said this will be the mayor’s new working space and where he will be allowed to be at city hall, and keep him separated from staff who have had issues.

He said the measure is not being done as an add-on to any of the other measures council has imposed on the mayor to date.

O’Reilly said the mayor’s new office will be “a great spot” for him to host visitors.

“It's almost like a store retail front. It's the most accessible office at this at city hall,” he said.

“It’s got a glass door, but then it also has glass windows out looking onto First Avenue, and that's where people will be able to go and meet with the mayor. It's going to have an executive bathroom and coffee area. It'll be a nice space.”