Kamloops mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson is facing a second lawsuit from one of his former lawyers, again for unpaid legal bills. This time, he’s pointed blame at city council for his financial woes.

The bulk of the outstanding legal bills stem from conduct complaints at city hall and if those investigations end without finding him at fault, he can ask the city to reimburse his legal costs.

Despite his efforts, none have been covered by taxpayers.

“As much as I don’t want them to, I’ve been forced to do this,” Hamer-Jackson said.

Vancouver-based firm Owen Bird filed against Hamer-Jackson earlier this month, looking to recover more than $50,000 in legal fees. Only around $3,000 of that is related to his defamation lawsuits against Coun. Katie Neustaeter and developer Joshua Knaak.

The rest are due to other city hall investigations.

Hamer-Jackson said council has been unwilling to reimburse his legal costs, even though many of the code of conduct investigations ended without finding fault, often withdrawn before they were completed.

“This is a good example of the political abuse that can be used with the code of conduct,” the mayor said.

City bylaws allow it to reimburse legal fees “reasonably incurred by a council member on terms and conditions council deems appropriate.” But the reason council has decided against reimbursing the mayor remains elusive because they are decisions made behind closed doors.

Hamer-Jackson couldn’t say what those reasons might have been or whether it was explained to him because decisions made in closed council meetings are confidential.

He also said he has continued to pay instalments to his lawyer, Daniel Coles, and he always planned to pay the bill, but was counting on being reimbursed for at least some of the legal costs associated with the city hall investigations.

“I wasn’t prepared to have hundreds of thousands of dollars laying around. I wasn’t prepared for 15 or 20 code of conduct complaints against me,” he said, thinking back to when he decided to run for office in 2022.

Just how many code of conduct complaints have been filed against Hamer-Jackson isn’t clear. City records only name him in a select few, mostly for those where he was found to have breached the code.

Of the roughly two dozen complaints, investigators ruled against him three times while others have been withdrawn or dismissed. The majority of the investigations at city hall, completed or not, are believed to be filed against the mayor.

It’s not clear whether other councillors facing a code of conduct investigation had their own lawyer involved nor whether any were reimbursed for costs.

He retained Coles of Owen Bird in 2023 initially to take over the Neustaeter lawsuit, before the other against Knaak was filed. Hamer-Jackson said he paid a $20,000 retainer, but much of that was swallowed up with code of conduct complaints and responding to the city’s efforts to recover a document Hamer-Jackson leaked.

The lawsuit comes after Hamer-Jackson was also taken to court for an alleged $35,000 legal bill owed to his former lawyer David McMillan. In that case, Hamer-Jackson denies they had agreed on payment, but the progress on that matter and the evidence presented to the court is sealed because of the potential it could reveal information on the outstanding Neustaeter lawsuit.

Coun. Margot Middleton, who is April’s deputy mayor, was not able to comment in time for publication.