Mayor Clark offers official apology to city manager, council

By Collin Gallant on September 4, 2024.

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Apology made and accepted, but there are apparently hard feelings held over in the dispute between Mayor Linnsie Clark and city manager Ann Mitchell.

Tuesday’s council meeting – the first since a judicial review reversed many of the sanctions placed on Clark for challenging Mitchell last August – began with an apology from the mayor.

And then a request from Mitchell to expand the apology to the city at large.

That brought down a chorus of boos from the gallery, filled with about 60 supporters of the mayor and about as many hockey fans waiting to hear about city support for a Memorial Cup bid.

Clark, chairing the meeting for the first time since March, had told the media she was considering the request for an apology – one of two remaining sanctions that survived her legal challenge – but would discuss it with council in a closed meeting earlier in the afternoon.

The open meeting began with a “councillor announcement” and Clark acknowledging the Aug. 21 court ruling.

“My intentions in my line of questioning that day (in 2023) were merely for me to carry out my duties as mayor of this city, and and not to cause hurt,” said Clark. “However, I do recognize that they did cause hurt around this table, and I apologize.”

Mitchell responded that she accepted the apology.

“I will accept the apology in the manner it is given,” she said. “But I would ask that you extend the apology to the community and to everyone in the (city) organization as well as myself and everyone at this (council) table.”

Clark thanked her for the comment and moved on.

The apology was one of few conditions placed on Clark in March 2024 that were maintained by King’s Bench Justice Rosemary Nation in a review leased last week.

In the other, council will need to reconsider rules that originally barred Clark from entering administrative areas or dealing with Mitchell in person.

That interferes with the mayor’s execution of her duties, Nation ruled, and needs to be altered by council. There is no immediate timetable for that issue to come forward.

The meeting, with an exceptionally long agenda, was also set to hear as a final item a notice of motion from Coun. Andy McGrogan calling for an audit of city operations and procedures. That has been outlined by Clark as the main point of August 2023 disagreement, and was one option presented by Municipal Affairs officials in July as a way forward in the lingering dispute.

Over the past year, Clark argued that layoffs, transfers and promotions in a corporate reorganization executed in July that year, should have been approved by council with bylaw amendments first.

Council approved the changes that night, following a 10-minute questioning of Mitchell by Clark, and a code of conduct complaint was launched shortly thereafter by Coun. Shila Sharps.

Relying on a third-party law firm’s investigation of the incident, council made a reasonable finding that a breach occurred in the Clark failed to treat Mitchell with due respect, according to the court review.

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