FILE PHOTO - Kamloops mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson at a March 28, 2023 council meeting.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

Embattled Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson has been kicked out of the mayor's office at Kamloops city hall as a "protective measure" for City staff.

The rest of Kamloops council decided Hamer-Jackson will move to a boardroom directly below council chambers by Oct. 22.

"This isn't a sanction, this is a protective measure we are putting in place to protect our staff," councillor Mike O'Reilly said. "Those are two very different things. That goes back to our legal obligation to protect and give our staff a safe working environment."

O'Reilly, who is October's deputy mayor, said Hamer-Jackson currently has "four active WorkSafe investigations" against him. He couldn't say whether there have been previously concluded investigations.

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The decision was prompted by a safety report brought to council. He didn't provide any details on the report.

"Staff were very vulnerable, and the measures we've put in place already over the past year to protect our staff, while they've been substantial, they haven't been enough," O'Reilly said.

Hamer-Jackson will have his own washroom and direct street access from his new workstation with a downstairs door, but renovations are still ongoing to set up the room for an office. Some safety measures in place previously have already prevented the mayor from being in direct contact with staff throughout city hall.

O'Reilly said the mayor was notified Thursday both in writing and by email, but Hamer-Jackson said he "only" heard about the measure from another reporter that morning, Oct. 3.

Hamer-Jackson responded to a request for comment from iNFOnews.ca by text message.

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"Don't have access to restricted area (of) city hall where staff areas are. You were there. The only time staff is around me is council days in council chambers. Just heard O'Reilly on CBC, what a joker," the text message read.

At 12:29 p.m., O'Reilly's email titled "privileged and confidential" landed in his inbox, Hamer-Jackson said, but he hasn't opened it.

"If the email is about this issue I don't want to be held back from speaking about what I've learned from the media and now O'Reilly is speaking about it publicly like he did about the Honcharuk report on Aug. 5, 2023 and prior," he said in another text message.

It's not clear exactly what Hamer-Jackson was referring to, but O'Reilly speak to RadioNL that day following a statement issued by council proclaiming their support for the City's top administrator. That statement followed confirmation of a previous investigation, also called the Integrity Group report, details of which were published by Kamloops This Week in August 2023, just days earlier.

Last year he was found to have bullied and harassed multiple staff members after a third-party investigation, which resulted in some of the first restrictions placed on how he contacts staff.

He has also been subject to sanctions against him, like his removal as official City spokesperson, a temporary reduction to his salary and temporary removal from outside board duties. In May, he faced a unanimous call from the rest of council to resign from his position. Two months later he announced that he would run again in the 2026 municipal election at what was teased to be a "resignation related" event.

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