City Notebook: Mid-term shake up at council
By COLLIN GALLANT on October 14, 2023.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant Who sits where might seem petty, but it’s a real thing in government and not such small potatoes. This week marks the two-year anniversary of the 2021 election, and therefore the third organizational meeting of the current council group. It’s also the first under new rules wherein councillors will have the final vote on who sits on or heads committees. A voting process in still not defined, but we’ll find out the results Monday (as if there wasn’t enough to do?). But it’s a legal requirement, and in reality key to the machinery of government. Committees send business to council, members have first pass at alterations and committee chairs can set agendas. It’s long been the task of the mayor to figure out the make-up in Medicine Hat. Not everywhere though, like in Cypress County where meetings each autumn feature rounds of nominations and voting for each posting. City council will now do something similar after a new council procedure bylaw passed this summer as an obvious rebuke of the status quo under Mayor Linnsie Clark. Indeed, three of the city’s four major committees sat this week with members acknowledging a shuffle is in the works. The lineup has been largely unchanged since Clark’s first set of assignments that gave some councillors a lot of work and others, relatively little. This list is publicly available. Yet, that’s not far from how it was done under previous mayors. Ted Clugston, who showed up on a local newscast this week to lambaste the mayor and council on multiple fronts, benefited from both as appointee and appointer over 12 years on council. The math is simple, appoint two similarly minded councillors to a three-person committee, and there you go. Clugston’s assignments were basically written in stone, but didn’t illicit the grumbles seen with Norm Boucher’s lineup, or Clark’s. You can’t say it’s not effective strategy, but it can also be frustrating for council members, not to mention the public, who only see the sausages once they’re made. They often can’t help but wonder what’s gone into the process. Quick ones We’ll spare you from items about the power situation in Medicine Hat, the province or the nation – until at least next weekend – but the issue could get settled or enter even more unsettled waters (see page 1)… The News will move operations early next week from Dunmore Road offices to the former Medicine Hat Shopper location on Allowance Avenue. It’s our fifth location over 138 years. Can you name the three others?… Halloween is ramping up: There’s a drive-in movie in support of the Santa Claus Fund on Saturday night, and promoters contacted the News this week to say the Manitoba-made 2002 independent horror flick “The Nature of Nicholas” has a screening here at the Cineplex Galaxy theatre on Monday… The Community Foundation’s Vital Signs Lunch is set for Oct. 30. A look ahead Expect a long council meeting Monday as public hearings on not just the new utility rate, but a contentious development permit to build a house near the end of the Sixth Avenue Trail and 11th Street on the Southeast Hill. Tuesday features the annual leadership breakfast with local municipal, provincial and federal representatives. 100 years ago The dream of a Civic Gymnasium would become reality, the News reported Oct. 16, 1923, after work by the “Amateur Athletic Union” to persuade “the city fathers” ahead of council decision. The building, located on Fifth Avenue near N. Railway, would be self-supporting and operated by a citizens committee. The same week, the Prince of Wales’ presence at his ranch near Pincher Creek arose speculation in the British news titled “the Sketch” that Canada could be elevated from Dominion to Kingdom with the British heir ascending to its throne. Same day box scores of the World Series in New York – made possible by the telegraph and time zones – were published in the News’ afternoon editions. (The Yankees beat the Giants). Officials appealed for calm to quell a run on banks that followed the collapse of the Home Bank of Canada The 1924 Olympics in Paris would feature photographic equipment to solve disputes in the 100-yard dash. The oft-told, never confirmed “I’m my own grampa” rumour was again detailed in reports from a remote village in Germany where a widow had supposedly married her daughter’s son-in-law. (Note: it supposedly happened in Iowa the previous year.) Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com. 31-30
