Former Kamloops CAO awarded $412,000 severance

The former top bureaucrat at Kamloops city hall was awarded more than $400,000 in a severance agreement this year.

Nearly five months after former chief administrative officer David Trawin signed the deal, iNFOnews.ca has obtained details of his severance through a Freedom of Information request.

The City of Kamloops provided a summary of Trawin’s settlement agreement after initially refusing to provide any details. It was an agreement settled after Trawin was on medical leave for more than a year, beginning just months after Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson took office.

His severance agreement was signed on June 23, but it was announced more than a month later. In a news release, Trawin cited Hamer-Jackson as his reason for leaving.

He said Hamer-Jackson made his job “unsustainable and untenable,” adding that the mayor “negatively or adversely impacted him on both a professional and personal level.”

Disputes between Hamer-Jackson and Trawin were known for months after a leaked workplace investigation report concluded the mayor had bullied and harassed him. Though the mayor disputes it, early in his term Hamer-Jackson was accused of threatening to fire Trawin.

According to the City-provided summary, his $412,361 payout settled claims for privacy breaches and emotional or mental distress. It also settled any claims for defamation, damage to his reputation and loss of future employment opportunities.

Lastly, it settled any claims of damages for Hamer-Jackson’s “intentional, egregious and flagrant mistreatment” of Trawin.

There was no other information included in the summary.

It’s not known whether the settlement amount is an ongoing salary payment or whether there were non-monetary concessions.

For example, a more detailed severance for former Thompson-Nicola Regional District CAO Sukh Gill whose continued 20 months’ salary was combined with more than $100,000 in accrued vacation pay. It earned him more than $450,000 in severance, while the regional district also agreed to provide a smartphone, laptop and payments for his membership to the Charter Professional Accountants Association.