NEW FILE PHOTOS
A side-by-side photo of outgoing City Clerk Larry Randle and new City Clerk Tarolyn Aaserud.
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Medicine Hat will have a new city clerk – it’s fourth in three years – in the fall, when current Cypress County top administrator, Tarolyn Aaserud, is expected to take over the city position.
After early media reports Monday, city staff confirmed to the News in the afternoon that Aaserud was set to be announced as the new city clerk at the conclusion of Monday’s regular city council meeting.
Aaserud, pronounced “ays-rude”, will join Medicine Hat in the city clerk’s department in a position advertised by the city in May.
At about that time, City Clerk Larry Randle was absent from a number of council meetings, where the clerk takes part, and administrators stressed to reporters the new job opening was “temporary” with the potential for permanent placement.
City hall officials told the News on Monday that Randle has resigned the position and has accepted another position with a municipality.
Clerk’s office official Lovejoy Sabina has been the acting city clerk and will continue in the role through the summer.
The changes come as senior city hall administrators hinted that the workload of the office, which coordinates and handles freedom of information requests, has been increasing steadily.
The clerks office also came under heavy criticism when it released a heavily redacted version of a report into allegations that Mayor Linnsie Clark had mistreated city manager Ann Mitchell during a council discussion.
Council-imposed sanctions on Clark have become a touchpoint of controversy in the community.
Randle took over the position in August of 2023, just as public backlash against high utilities prices led to a flurry of requests and criticism about operations at the city-owned power company.
Council Chair, Coun. Ramona Robins, opened council Monday announcing the change, calling the position “very difficult and public facing,” Randle, she said was “a real gentleman and human being” who provided “very thoughtful advice.
“It was a great pleasure to work with him, and I hope he goes on to do many great things in his career.”
Aaserud was hired by Cypress County as chief administrative officer in 2018.She was previously the senior most administrator in Paintearth County, which is centred in Castor, for nine years, starting in 2009.
Previous to that, she worked in senior management at Saddle Hills County and the Town of Killam, both in Northern Alberta.
Long-time Medicine Hat City Clerk Angela Cruickshank left the position to accept a posting with a foreign national government in early 2022.
Her permanent replacement, Arlene Karbashewski was hired in August 2022 from a similar post in Grande Prairie, but left the following spring, and later left the city work for the City of Edmonton.
Randle joined the city in August 2023 after working from a senior position in Lethbridge County.
[Editor’s Note: This version corrects the previous headline which suggested the clerk’s position had been filled temporarily, when the position is now permanently filled, according to City officials. It also corrects a spelling mistake.]
