Kamloops mayor threatens to suspend employee during council meeting

Kamloops city council was quick to leave the room today after the mayor threatened to suspend an employee during a council meeting.

Tensions between corporate officer Maria Mazzotta and Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson have flared up in the past, and he raised the temperature again, July 14, before she followed through with exactly what he warned her against.

“Corporate officer Mazzotta, you were yelling at IT to shut my microphone off… I’ve been cut off at public engagements and I don’t want it to happen anymore,” he said. “I don’t know if you know, but the mayor can suspend any municipal officer or employee.”

Coun. Katie Neustaeter cut him off as he spoke.

“Are you really threatening our employees that you’ll employ what you have in the past?” she said, referring to the time council overturned a previous suspension he levied on a city manager.

Hamer-Jackson pressed on, but not for long. Mazzotta spoke up as Hamer-Jackson attempted to continue with a demand for records from councillors and told IT to cut the mayor’s microphone.

The meeting ended and councillors promptly left.

Hamer-Jackson has been at odds with Mazzotta before, whose job at council meetings is to ensure council follows legal procedures.

On more than one occasion, she has cut him off as he attempted to air confidential issues in public meetings, often in relation to city employees and human resources issues. The most notable and combative moment between the two was in November 2024 when, as she has done multiple times, Mazzotta challenged the mayor because he was in a conflict of interest and refused to leave.

This time, Hamer-Jackson demanded councillors provide him statements they gave to workplace investigators and to two consultants who were hired to help mediate the combative relationship between the mayor and council.

The consultant’s report was published in mid-2024 and numerous workplace investigations have either been published or leaked since he was elected nearly four years ago. Council didn’t entertain his demand and ended the meeting before discussing it.