Mayor Linnsie Clark asks a question during a presentation at Monday evening's council meeting.--News Photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
The City of Medicine Hat is now hiring a city manager, but nothing more was revealed Tuesday about the vacancy that opened up.
Merete Heggelund was thanked by council before Monday night’s meeting for coming out of retirement to become interim city manager earlier this year.
On the same day, a job posting for a permanent top administrator was posted on the city website, while councillors said they will meet Monday to discuss how operations will be handled in the meantime.
More discussion was expected Tuesday as the recently formed “Council Employee” committee meeting was to hold its regular meeting, though it was cancelled early in the day due to an expected lack of quorum.
As well, Invest Medicine Hat managing director Eric Van Enk will also leave that position, it was announced Monday.
He was a key player in the city’s plan to develop a hydrogen sector attraction strategy as well as a carbon capture project jointly developed by officials in the utility division and energy offices at the city.
Mayor Linnsie Clark said Monday the projects – now being evaluated by the province’s energy ministry – are not in jeopardy.
“I’m still very excited about the hydrogen and carbon capture work that’s been undertaken and we trust that it’s in very good hands,” said Clark on Monday night.
“We think we’re well positioned to keep pushing forward to be successful.”
The Council Employee committee had been tasked with officially interacting with the top administrator, and more generally directly with workforce issues, when it was created in early 2022. It’s official mandate was to develop process and criteria for evaluating the city manager’s job performance.
Legally, the top administrator is the only direct employee of council, and that person, in turn, is directly responsible for the rest of the city’s managers and workforce.
Clark and other elected officials argued that such a process is a requirement of the Municipal Government Act, but the creation was quickly followed by the exit of city manager Bob Nicolay.
He said that since 2022 budgeting was completed, he would accelerate his retirement plans so a new council could begin planning sessions with a new city manager.
That also came after tension arose during the passage of the 2022 city budget amendments, and criticism from some incoming councillors about Nicolay’s handling of the process to contract out the Invest Medicine Hat office.
Former Invest managing director Jason Melhoff left the position in the fall and was replaced by Van Enk from within the department.
When Heggelund was named interim city manager in March she stated her experience and availability would of service to the city.
“It’s a very short term appointment,” she told the News on March 7. “I hope to prepare the ground for when a new city manager is hired so they can hit the ground running and be set up for success.”
Her last day will be June 14.
With the position open for several weeks earlier this year, the duties were handled by a rotation of managing directors, formerly known as commissioners, from each division, until Heggelund was named interim city manager in early March.
