Nearly all Kamloops council candidates sat for the cameras Wednesday for the first election forum in what has been a highly-anticipated municipal election.

Central to the day was a near-unanimous desire to turn the page on the latest chaotic term, which saw scandals from Kamloops city hall making headlines for the past four years.

Incumbents promised a new mayor would right the ship, newcomers called for a clear slate, but each touted themselves as a team player who would lead city council out of the ongoing conflict.

“I’m very hopeful that the next council gets back to the core activity of problem solving,” council candidate Randy Sunderman said.

The Kamloops Chamber of Commerce sponsored forum, Sept. 23, was the first event for candidates to pitch their platforms. Aside from the six mayoral candidates, it didn’t take the form of a debate.

Instead, Castanet Kamloops editor Tim Petruk asked them each about how they’ll tackle local issues and they made their case to the online audience.

Now available on YouTube, it has so far garnered more than 5,000 views. That was the only way to watch the event, with the audience restricted to some staff, media and campaign workers.

Four council candidates didn’t show up, including Nevin Webster, Ian Head, Alberto De Marni and Barbara Morin. The 25 who participated were separated into three groups over the day.

The repeated message of renewed decorum at city hall came following incumbent mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson’s chaotic term. He’s been investigated several times for bullying staff and releasing private information.

His combative approach continued during the mayoral debate.

“What we need is, we definitely need a new council. This has been embarrassing,” Hamer-Jackson said. “I’ve got councillors recording me, I’ve got a councillor accusing me of violating personal boundaries… all illegal.”

While he directed his ire at the current members of city council, some of his combative tendencies were somewhat avoided by a change in moderator.

Castanet’s Petruk and Hamer-Jackson have long been at odds, culminating last year with Hamer-Jackson reporting him to Kamloops RCMP for an alleged assault. Police dismissed the allegation, but the two did not make amends and the moderator role was given to former newspaper editor Chris Foulds to avoid any potential conflict.

Eyeing a council seat again, Mac Gordon was the sole candidate to explicitly go on the attack against others at the table.

He put his sights on Bill Sarai in particular, raising the incumbent’s past record of secretly recording the mayor and lying about it. Gordon also claimed responsibility as the catalyst behind council removing a section for public inquiries from open meetings and for spearheading the “no incumbents movement.”

Candidates were questioned about their stances on far more issues than decorum at city hall for a combined ten hours, proposing their plans to bolster affordable housing, attract tourists to Kamloops and to address homelessness and public safety.

On issues like homelessness and social disorder, some candidates called for a cohesion between local non-profits and health care within the city, others wanted to increase law enforcement across the city to address repeat offenders.

Airport improvements and tourism saw perhaps the greatest divide with some, like Gordon, calling for the city to step back and allow private development to lead the way.

Others proposed supporting local businesses or new attractions, like incumbent Kelly Hall, or Katie Neustaeter and Mike O’Reilly suggested leaning into government contracts at the airport to attract provincial and federal funds.

A recording of the forum can be found online here.