A very busy spring stretch for city council gets underway tonight with a jam-packed agenda at city hall chambers.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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City council is about to enter a marathon stretch this spring as it tackles a long agenda tonight and plans for four special sittings over the next two months.
Among the high-profile items on tonight’s Medicine Hat city council regular meeting are the first presentation on the 2025 property tax rates, an information item about the financial implications of creating a corporation to operate the city’s power business and a debate on covering Mayor Linnsie Clark’s legal bills from a dispute with city manager Ann Mitchell and the rest of council.
As well, an emergent item suggests council approve three closed-door “committee of the whole” meetings over the next five weeks to alternate on Mondays to regular council meetings. A fourth, which would be open to the public, would be held June 23.
The topics of the meetings, largely held to facilitate discussion between staff and council, are not known.
They could align with the findings of a municipal inspection of procures requested by council from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs last summer. It was thought to be avenue to move past quarrelling between council, Clark and administrators over process and staff authority.
Tonight, an overview of closed-door session topics includes the inspection, though no more information is provided and the item won’t be discussed unless it moves to the open meeting at the request of a majority of council.
On the tax front, the 2025-202 city budget calls for a 5.6 per cent general increase to municipal rates. The corresponding mill rates were set to be presented to council earlier this month, though that was held as the April 7 meeting ran long.
Finance staffers said at a committee meeting earlier this month that expectations of assessment growth that were pegged at zero this year due to the reclassification of the Aurora Cannabis – now Bevo Farms, Greenhouse – are actually in negative territory.
They suggest covering the shortfall out of reserve funds this year to maintain the original tax increase target.
Energy officials told committee meeting late last week that they are prepared to present initial economic cost analysis of a municipally controlled corporation to hold the power production and utility distribution companies. That will include start-up and going-forward estimates, as were requested when council received a third-party business review of the energy division last fall.
A notice of motion last week from Clark will see council members debate whether the city should reimburse the mayor for $76,000 in legal bills incurred during a judicial review request by the first-term mayor after she was sanctioned by council decision in March 2024.
Also on tonight’s agenda are the city’s 2024 annual report and financial statements, and council is also expected to pass the Tri-area Inter-municipal Development Plan it has with the Town of Redcliff and Cypress County.
