cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A newly announced candidate for mayor – and member of the city’s legal department – says the process to contract out Invest Medicine Hat should be shut down immediately.
Linnsie Clark took a leave of absence with the city solicitor’s office last month with the plan to launch a mayoral bid later this summer.
On Monday she joined two other contenders for mayor in saying the current process of contracting out economic development should be halted.
“The (tender) is unprecedented in scope and duration, the bid process is problematic, and the contract is being rushed through just before the current council exits,” she wrote in an open letter to council.
She told the News she has no specific information about the Invest contracting out process – having not worked on the file – but says many aspects raise serious questions.
“Even the potential appearance of a conflict is sufficient to impact the public respect for city decision making, and hurt the city’s reputation in the business community,” she said.
Last week the News reported that a process to find a private operator for economic development and municipal land sales was well underway, and the leading candidate appears to be a company formed by current managers of the city department.
Three candidates now registered in the mayoral race, including Alan Rose and Tony Leahy, said the process should be stopped before a 10-year contract is signed, potentially in September.
Current Mayor Ted Clugston, who publicly announced his intention to seek a third term in October, has not yet registered as a candidate.
He has directed all questions about the Invest RFP to city administrators, and on Monday did not reply to request for comment on the election issue.
Rose announced his intention to run for mayor earlier this year, and said the current controversy aligns with concerns he has heard in the community.
“The city should be in economic development, but what they’re doing is subsidizing development,” said Rose, the head of the Medicine Hat Ratepayers Association, who has been highly critical of a grant program to entice new construction. “They’re supposed to be bringing in businesses but what they’re doing in selling real estate, and discounted real estate at that.”
“They should be bringing in new businesses.”
Invest MH was a contracted service provided by the private sector firm until 2019, when the contract came up for renewal and the city took over operations and melded it with the land and properties department.
Leahy, a real estate agent who opened a campaign webpage last month, as well said Invest should concentrate on business attraction, but since they’re overseeing the city’s land holdings, they should have accomplished more.
“Real estate is booming right now and what do they have to show for it?” he asked.
A number of sales currently advertised are legacy projects sold by the municipal land department prior to 2020, he said.
“I don’t think it’s working, and it looks poorly on them,” he said.
Leahy said his campaign will focus on tackling societal issues while attracting new businesses and maintaining public ownership of utilities.
All of the four candidates for mayor are lifelong residents of Medicine Hat.
Clark, who joined the city as a lawyer in 2017, says she did not work on the Invest file or its RFP, and says she won’t discuss any specific details of any of her files during the campaign.
But, she says, she was compelled to run in order to help Medicine Hat reach its “potential.”
“This isn’t a single-issue campaign,” she told the News. “But (the Invest RFP) is indicative about of a pattern of long-term planning and the economics and analysis not lining up.
“My campaign will be about maximizing the potential of Medicine Hat, relying on our strengths, not running around doing what everywhere is doing, namely giving a lot of taxpayer money away.”
Senior city administrators, like city manager Bob Nicolay, have said the private sector model, like that employed from 2016 to 2019 here, is preferable and will save the city money.
Coun. Phil Turnbull told the News that it is well known that the city would eventually tender the Invest contract back to the public sector, and for four years has made development and real estate sales a priority.
Bid packages were due Monday for the process, which opened in June, about four months after current Invest MH managing director Jason Melhoff and two other senior managers in the city office created a company that is now likely to bid on the project.
City officials say there is legally no conflict of interest because they specifically included a clause allowing current city employees to bid on the process. Critics say that puts outside bidders at a disadvantage.
Clark said the logic doesn’t stand up to public scrutiny and the public was never aware of how big the contracting out process could be.
As a “request for proposals” process, prospective bidders could also suggest to take over other city services.
“If this was well-planned, there would be a plan, instead of asking (companies) to submit a plan,” said Clark.
