The mayor of Kamloops only has a few days to file his paperwork for the election and is now blaming city council for the delay.

Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson looped journalists and supporters into an email thread in which he suggests the rules that bar him from dealing with city staff might restrict him from submitting important election documents.

“Sure wouldn’t want my job application to be late due to your behaviour…,” he said in an email to Coun. Kelly Hall, referring to his yet-to-be-filed nomination papers.

It’s just over a month before the election, a period where campaign season is blending with council business. Incumbent mayors in the Okanagan are taking on provincial and federal governments to lobby for action on street issues and involuntary addictions treatment, while Hamer-Jackson has been rehashing old gripes with city council, roping reporters into his often-unanswered emails.

Hamer-Jackson has long been restricted from talking directly with certain city employees because of bullying and harassment claims, but there’s no evidence it will stop him from filing election paperwork.

In a text message, he told iNFOnews.ca he was too busy with back-to-back meetings when contacted by phone, adding that “one lady” told him she thought city council would “block” him from submitting nomination papers. He didn’t answer when asked whether he suspects the same.

The city’s chief election officer said there is nothing barring Hamer-Jackson from submitting the paperwork.

“All candidates are welcome to set an appointment with the elections… We’ve reached out and advised (Hamer-Jackson) as well,” chief election officer Alisha Beday said.

The incumbent mayor is the only one out of four expected candidate who has not formally filed his nomination papers, but he has asserted his intention to run again for more than two years.

His emails about his outstanding nomination forms are the latest after weeks of pulling journalists and supporters into his communications with city officials, featuring demands for his salary to be reinstated, questions about workplace investigations and complaints about election signage rules from 2022.

This week’s batch demand Hall forward to him, plus Hamer-Jackson’s chosen observers, a letter that sets out how Hamer-Jackson is allowed to contact city staff. It’s not clear whether he suspects it will impact his ability to file nomination papers or he simply intends to make the letter public.

iNFOnews.ca made multiple unsuccessful attempts to reach Hall, but he told Hamer-Jackson in an email to simply schedule an appointment with Beday like the numerous other candidates have already.

Hamer-Jackson has not released his election platform and his campaign website is yet to be updated, but he has proposed three new notices of motion at a recent city council meeting.

One calls for changes to a West Victoria Street service for homeless people, rehashing a similar proposal to his first notice of motion nearly four years ago. Another calls for a pause of Build Kamloops projects and a spending review.

The third is more personal and demands council release communications about him. Hamer-Jackson said in a news release he would, in turn, put his communications “on the table,” but his track record with information disclosure has been unreliable.

So far, Nelly Dever, Ray Dhaliwal and city councillor Mike O’Reilly have submitted their nomination papers for the mayoral seat, along with 16 council candidates. The deadline to file is Sept. 11.