kamloopsthisweek.com | kamloopsthisweek |
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2023 | Volume 36 No. 3
kamthisweek
#YKASTRONG
Can city council fracture be fixed?
Since being elected on Oct. 15, Kamloops Mayor Reid HamerJackson and council have been at odds over various issues. DAVE EAGLES/KTW
MICHAEL POTESTIO STAFF REPORTER
michael@kamloopsthisweek.com
TRU INVESTIGATION REPORT REVEALED SEAN BRADY STAFF REPORTER sbrady@kamloopsthisweek.com
Thompson Rivers University has completed its investigation into complaints against a pair of senior administrators, one of whom is no longer at the school. TRU vice-president of finance and administration Matt Milovick and former associate vice-president of people and culture Larry Phillips were the subjects of complaints filed in February 2021 by current and former employees at the university. At a press conference at TRU on Tuesday (Jan. 17), it was revealed that a sub-committee of the university board received the report from two independent investigators on Dec. 21, 2022. The 500-page-plus report examined 55 allegations from eight complainants. Twenty-two allegations were brought against one of the administrators, while 33 allegations were brought against the other administrator.
The investigation has cleared one administrator, while noting 10 allegations from four complainants levelled against the other administrator were substantiated. Seven of those substantiated allegations centred around inappropriate comments amounting to sexual harassment against women in the workplace or in social settings. One other allegation was deemed harassment targeting a particular age group, another involved a comment derogatory to Indigenous people, and another was personal harassment. In all, 45 of 55 allegations were not substantiated by investigators. These included four instances when investigators made no finding because the matter had been previously reviewed, the allegations (in two instances) were too general to be investigated or the parties could not provide information to allow the allegation to be investigated. See UNIVERSITY, A10
K
amloops city councillors are considering an expansion of the deputy mayor role after newly elected mayor Reid HamerJackson was absent from a team-building workshop last week. The Jan. 10 meeting involved councillors, chief administrative officer (CAO) David Trawin and a facilitator discussing subjects such as council’s strategic planning, communication issues and orientation follow-up. The meeting was scheduled a few months ago and Hamer-Jackson had attended two similar sessions following the Oct. 15 civic election. Hamer-Jackson told KTW he was in the midst of returning from vacation in Mexico over the Christmas break and had informed Trawin and the executive assistant for mayor and council he would not be attending the Jan. 10 meeting. Hamer-Jackson added that, had he been in the city, he still would not have attended because he believes he — not the CAO — should be the one organizing and leading council team-building meetings. Coun. Mike O’Reilly
tweeted a photo from the workshop showing Trawin and all members of council except the mayor and Coun. Bill Sarai (who is on vacation in India) around a table with the caption, “Working as a team is one of the biggest parts of having a successful council.” Coun. Dale Bass is deputy mayor for January and said she has been authorized to speak on behalf of the rest of her council members. She said it was not lost on councillors that people would notice, from the tweet, that Hamer-Jackson wasn’t there. Bass told KTW council is frustrated that the mayor missed the meeting, adding he did not inform councillors as to why he wouldn’t be in attendance. “Right now, we want to confront the fact that he is
remaining outside of the team,” Bass said, arguing the importance of attending team meetings should have been obvious. If the mayor isn’t in attendance when council discusses how to approach strategic planning, how to engage with the community and how nine individuals can work together, Bass said, then he will never find a way to work with council. “And I think that’s apparent right now,” she said. “The mayor doesn’t seem to understand that he also needs to learn to be part of the team. He seems to think he’s the team builder and, in many ways, he has been because we’ve had to work without him around.” See DEPUTY MAYOR, A5
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