City clerk Arlene Karbeshewski and Mayor Linnsie Clark conduct a council meeting on Sept. 6, 2022.--News File Photo
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
City Hall is looking for a new city clerk, its third in two years and one of a number of key senior positions to change personnel over the last 18 months.
Council members questioned by the News this week said the scope of changes isn’t yet a concern, considering large turnover on council and a change in general priorities.
But, some admit, the changes have been disruptive on some level and several have been visibly frustrated at council meetings.
Mayor Linnsie Clark said a long-promised update to council’s procedure bylaw this year will “reshape” how council and committees interact.
“A certain amount of shifting and shuffling can be expected when new leadership comes in, and there should be some latitude there,” she said.
“With new councillors and a new city clerk, who had a strong vision of how things should be done, we’ve had a significant amount of changes and there is some room to grow.
“Ideally, that would have happened early on in a term.”
This week, the city’s jobs posting board sought a new city clerk to replace Arlene Karbeshewski, who was hired last August from the City of Grande Prairie where she held the similar position. An “interim clerk” led proceedings at Monday’s council meeting.
“I’m very grateful to have relocated to Medicine Hat where I plan to stay,” Karbeshewski told the News, adding she won’t comment on the reasons behind her departure.
“I’m also very grateful for the opportunity to work for the City of Medicine Hat (and) I wish Mayor Clark and council all the best and hope they continue to advocate for transparency in local government decisions that affect our community.”
She was hired to replace former city clerk, Angela Cruikshank, who left in early 2022 after 10 years with the city to relocate and work for a foreign national government.
Coun. Shila Sharp headed a special council committee on employee relations that guided the hiring of the city manager and conducted a workforce satisfaction.
She told the News this week she sees no need to restart the committee to address changeover.
“Not all turnover is bad turnover, too, because when you have a new leadership in, there are different thoughts and processes. It’s not that people don’t get along, but (people say) ‘you know what, I don’t align with that, and maybe this isn’t for me.”
“That is fine, too. Not everybody is of the same thought process.”
Including the departure of city manager Bob Nicolay – which saw two interim managers before a permanent hire was finalized last February – four of seven top senior positions have changed, including three of five division heads.
In the 2021 election, Clark – a city solicitor on leave for the election – and other successful candidates vowed to renew morale in the city workforce and questioned the transparency of operations under Nicolay.
After the election, a workforce survey was conducted and a special committee of the council was credited to create a performance evaluation format for the city manager.
Shortly thereafter, Nicolay announced he would leave the post – speeding up a planned retirement – but quickly took a city manager position in Grande Prairie.
In his absence, former city chief administrator Merete Heggelund was hired temporarily, then replaced by interim city manager Glen Feltham in June as the committee contemplated hiring a permanent replacement.
That occurred seven months later when Ann Mitchell, then manager of Lethbridge County, accepted the post starting in February.
Mitchell also told the News that after four months of being on the job, the city now has recently hired a permanent head to its human resources department, and progress is being made on other priorities.
“We had a bit of turnover before I got here, so one of my first orders of business was to make sure we’ve hired for HR and hired economic development (positions), and we’re in the last stages of that,” she said.
In mid-2022, Invest Medicine Hat head Erik Van Enk left to become a private investment banker in the city. Council voted support in April for Mitchell’s plan to restaff senior positions in the office.
Public services head Brian Mastel also announced his return to the private sector in 2022 and was replaced by former fire chief Brian Stauth, who will stay on until a planned retirement next year.
Utility and infrastructure managing director Brad Maynes leaves the city this month to an unnamed private sector energy firm. This week it was announced he will also join the board of “Decentralized Energy Canada,” an industry association that supports self-supply electricity initiatives.
