Ann Mitchell, the City of Medicine Hat's new chief administrative officer, attends the annual State fo the City luncheon on Jan. 24. The recent manager of Lethbridge County officially began her position with the city on Feb. 6.--News Photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Ann Mitchell takes on the new city manager role just as City Hall begins what is billed as one of the busiest years in recent memory to reset its agenda.
Economic development, a two-headed hydrogen and carbon-capture industrial attraction strategy, coupled with a workforce retention and attraction strategy.
A two-year exercise in prioritizing “smart growth” via a collaboration with the Strong Towns municipal advocacy group began the day after she took over on Feb. 6.
She’ll attend just her second city council meeting tonight where council is expected to green-light a study on creating a regional water commission.
That’s on top of leading administration on several other reviews, and implementing council strategic priorities targeting communications with citizens and improving morale at city hall.
“There does seem to be a disconnect between the community and city hall, and I really want to look to change that,” she told the News.
“There’s a lot that’s happened in the last few years: financially fit (budget process), accelerated financially fit, the pandemic, and I do believe that’s affected our staff and we need to make a better space internally (at the city).
“We can interact and act with community groups in a more collaborative way. That sounds very fluffy and what not, but I’m strong on regional collaboration and building relationships, and that’s one of the reasons, I believe, I’m here.”
Mitchell has worked in municipal government for 27 years, spending the past 18 as a CAO, following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, who were both municipal officials.
“It’s the family business, I guess,” she said.
Mitchell started her career with the City of Sault Ste. Marie after growing up in Northern Ontario, then as manager of several rural municipalities before arriving in Alberta. She also co-hosts a podcast for civic officials titled the “Local Government Cafe.”
Mitchell, 57, moved the city in early 2023 from Lethbridge County, after she was hired as the permanent replacement.
She said she’s getting acquainted with the city, checking out the physical and social landscape, and feels the city is in good position, but with room to improve.
“The biggest priority is economic development, critically,” she said. “Everyone in this city knows, Invest Medicine Hat is in a holding pattern right now. I’ve been working on that, and hopefully we’ll get things sorted out in the next month.
“I’ve spent some time exploring that with stakeholders,” she said, also citing council strategic priorities, set in mid-2022.
“There’s work to do on that as well, but also, making sure that as a bureaucracy, that we are working in a way that’s effective for the community.”
Mitchell takes over from interim manager Glen Feltham, who held the position for most of 2022 after former CAO Bob Nicolay retired early.
That left 13 months between permanent city managers, and there is a backlog of projects, and in some cases, work already midstream.
One item is the Strong Towns two-year pilot project, which was unveiled this month, but has raised questions about its purpose.
“There’s a lot of confusion and we’ve talked about that internally,” said Mitchell, stating the public may see the group as a consultant that will produce a report with recommendations about “sustainable” finance and operations.
“It’s a bit of a mind shift to look at things in a more innovative way,” she said.
“It’s a mentorship, they’re not coming in telling us what to do. We’re saying, ‘Let’s look at applying some of these (cost-benefit) principles to see how we can improve our city.'”
In 2023, the city will also produce an environmental roadmap, continue in the first year of the Strong Towns pilot described as a study in “sustainability,” and an update to transportation masterplan. This week council will consider studying the potential of a regional water commission.
A new iteration of the parks and recreation masterplan, involving facilities, will be back before committee soon.
This week, council is expected to green-light a study toward regionalizing water and sewer delivery with Redcliff and Cypress County.
In 2020, the three neighbouring municipalities signed onto a joint “intermunicipal co-operation” framework to discuss areas of common interest, but little has come forward from the regular meetings of a joint committee.
