For the first time in three years the city is reorganizing city departments and shifting certain roles within them.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A shuffle of senior city hall staff and portfolios puts the power generation unit back as the key component of a division.
A corporate reorganization of departments announced Friday also fills a vacancy in one of four key senior posts in charge of municipal divisions, while other changes eliminate a “managing director” title in the flow chart that was last revised just three years ago.
“Energy,” namely the gas and power production units, regain title status of a city division as it joins “Energy, Land and Strategy” headed by former “Strategic Management and Analysis” managing director Rochelle Pancoast.
She previously led the Utilities Business Support office and headed up special projects at city hall since joining the city six years ago.
“This new structure allows us to focus on the city’s core energy functions within one division while also advancing the land and environmental efforts,” she said in a release announcing the changes. “I look forward to collaborating with our team and industry experts to position the city favourably in this time of energy transition.”
The power plant has produced extraordinary profits over two years to help long-term budget and investment goals at the city, but could be challenged in years to come as the market shifts.
Current work includes an environmental road map for the city to reduce its carbon footprint, and also what has been posed as an industrial strategy to offer low-carbon power and potentially carbon capture and storage in a city-led effort to develop an open-access sequestration hub.
“(The changes) are mindful of that strategy we need to make that transition happen,” Pancoast told the News.
The Redcliff native worked for eight years as a senior official with TransAlta Utilities in gas and renewables prior to joining the city in 2017.
The department will also oversee the city’s land department and the power and natural gas distribution companies, which from a corporate standpoint are separate from production.
In changes effective Monday, Pat Bohan, the previous director of city assets, will become the top administrator, or “managing director”, in a renamed “development and infrastructure” division, which regains the city’s planning department.
That division included energy after a corporate reorganization in early 2021 under then-city manager Bob Nicolay, who argued changes would align work, improve efficiency, trim the workforce, especially among managers, and generally save money.
It joined all utilities, including water, gas, power and sewer systems, with municipal works and road, renamed “city assets,” arguing construction synergies could be gained.
“As the director of city assets, Pat demonstrated a keen desire to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders,” said current city manager Ann Mitchell. “I am confident in his ability to lead the newly formed … division into the future while advancing council’s strategic priorities, supporting staff and serving our community.”
Bohan joined the city in 2020 after a private-sector career with GE Capital, Microsoft and Enmax utilities.
“I look forward to bringing to the executive table the perspective I’ve gained from my years working with our unique assets,” says Bohan. “I am grateful for this opportunity.”
The division also includes city buildings, fleet, the landfill and operations at the Medicine Hat Regional Airport.
Bohan has been the acting head of the division since June, but now permanently replaces former managing director Brad Maynes, a former energy executive, who left for the private sector last month.
The other divisions answering to city council standing committees are public services (including fire, parks, transit and cultural development) and corporate services. They are led by Brian Stauth and Dennis Egert, respectively.
The News has also learned that recently hired economic development director Selena McLean-Moore will be the top administrator in the department, which formerly stood as a full division on the city’s flow chart.
She will report directly to the city manager, thereby eliminating the presence of a “managing director” as was the case with “Invest Medicine Hat,” though the position had been vacant since late 2021.
Last year, land sales and development that had been an Invest area, were combined with the Land and Environment office, which also oversees the gas division’s well abandonment efforts and land leases inside city limits and monitors urban wells.
