Another set of pay cuts are in store for the mayor of Kamloops after another investigation into his treatment of city staff.

Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson was ordered to send apology letters to three city hall employees and, again, take a course on BC privacy law. If he doesn’t comply, he risks another 20 per cent cut to his salary.

It’s the most recent of several code of conduct investigations into Hamer-Jackson since July 2023. At issue are a series of emails, some he sent to staff and some to city council.

Precisely what he said isn’t included in the publicly released report, but at least one city employee said his emails made them feel humiliated and intimidated.

“In my opinion, no Mayor should treat staff in this manner and the Mayor owes these staff an unqualified apology,” investigator Reece Harding’s report reads.

The investigation was seperated in two parts. In a series of emails to council last spring, Hamer-Jackson revealed private information about city employees.

The second part came after city staff concluded those emails breached privacy law and demanded Hamer-Jackson delete them. He responded by challenging staff, questioning their qualifications and threatening litigation, according to the report.

Harding found Hamer-Jackson couldn’t have broken privacy rules inadvertently, nor did he make efforts to avoid it.

“In fact, the circumstances of this matter indicate that the Mayor was combative with the City staff who were simply attempting to do their jobs. Had the Mayor simply complied with their directions to double-delete the offending emails this complaint might not have been filed in the first place,” the report reads.

“In other words, the Mayor’s decisions made the breach worse as opposed to preventing a further breach.”

The cost of the investigation climbed to $52,360 because of Hamer-Jackson’s refusals to participate.

Hamer-Jackson asked Harding and his colleagues multiple times for the specifics of the complaints and, after receiving a 57-page report including his emails and text messages, simply told Harding to “just do” the report.

During the lengthy investigation, Harding said he “received nothing of utility” from Hamer-Jackson, despite multiple attempts to reach out. It’s a pattern for Hamer-Jackson, who has repeatedly refused to participate in the investigations.

Although council has voted to cut Hamer-Jackson’s salary multiple times, with various conditions attached, each of those reductions came with time limits. It’s not clear how many have been extended already or how much the mayor is currently earning of what would typically be a salary of more than $120,000 per year.

Council voted on the sanctions against the mayor on March 24. From there, he was given 30 days to send three apology letters to various unnamed city employees or risk a combined 15% pay cut. He was also given 60 days to complete a privacy law training course or risk another 5% pay cut.

iNFOnews.ca reached out to a city spokesperson for clarification on Hamer-Jackson’s current sanctions, but did not immediately get a response.