Coun. Cassi Hider is among councillors voicing frustration with an ongoing dispute between city council, the city manager and Mayor Linnsie Clark.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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City council members and Mayor Linnsie Clark are reacting after their legal representatives laid out a high-profile dispute in court Tuesday.
Since March, Hatters have watched the controversy grow after Clark was found by council to have breached the council code of conduct and was heavily sanctioned.
Tuesday’s judicial review hearing heard Clark’s legal team state that council was “gunning” for Clark, and tied her to the “whipping post” with sanctions after an Aug. 21, 2023 exchange with city manager Ann Mitchell – described by city lawyers as “destructive.”
Clark told the News on Thursday she was disappointed the matter had to go to a judicial hearing, but other council members reacted sharply telling the News the mayor is the one avoiding an out-of-court resolution.
“I appreciate the city has to make its arguments,” said Clark, a lawyer in her private career. “It’s strange that a city would spend taxpayer dollars going after the mayor.”
Clark told the News and other media that day that she won’t discuss the points of the case until a decision of the judicial review is given in late September.
Couns. Shila Sharps and Andy McGrogan both told the News that “before, during and after” efforts have been made to improve the relationship at council, but Clark has been inflexible.
Coun. Cassi Hider watched the hearing via video-conferencing at the Calgary Court Centre, and said issues existed before the nine-minute exchange between Clark and Mitchell.
This week’s hearing and statements from Clark widen the divide, she said.
“I don’t think there is a reconciliation point here,” Hider told the News bluntly, adding that she is growingly frustrated as a first-term councillor.
“It’s supposed to be about social services, recreation facilities and bringing industry to the city; instead this (dispute) has monopolized our time.
“No one can work with her. I don’t know who Clark’s kidding when she says we’re getting things done.”
Clark has said publicly that she has continued to work to the best of her ability, despite sanctions that remove her from chairing council meetings, limit her interactions with staff members and reduce her salary by half to about $68,000 per year.
Other council members said their decision includes the potential for revisiting the sanctions if an apology is offered, but that has not been forthcoming.
Clark has said the issue is an important matter of basic democracy to provide vigorous oversight of administrative action.
“I feel like I’ve been open for discussion on any issue, and certainly, I feel an openness to resolve whatever issues exist,” she said.
“As the one who’s been sanctioned, I feel aggrieved, and I’d suggest we’ll wait to see what the judge says in September and hopefully that will give us some guidance going forward.”
Coun. Allison Knodel said the hearing is a “distraction” to the work city council needs to undertake, including major budget discussions this fall.
“The conflict needs to take a back seat to our responsibility to the community as elected officials,” she told the News.
Coun. Andy McGrogan chaired the special sanctioning meeting and explained the motions, including a letter admonishing Clark and suggesting an apology should come.
The mayor could say, “Although she feels that she was right, she could have handled it differently and more respectfully, but that has never happened,” said McGrogan.
“My guess is that had it happened, this would be long behind us.”
It shows a “complete lack of any sense of humility,” he added.
Justice Rosemary Nation is asked to review and determine if the decision made by council was correct and whether the sanctions against her are appropriate.
Clark’s lawyer Grant Stapon argued the investigation report was flawed in that it didn’t consider Clark’s argument’s that administrators usurped council’s authority in enacting a corporate reorganization before council gave final approval.
Clark’s defence this week outlined continuing frustration that she felt in the fall, during the investigation, and since with her treatment by council.
Lawyers for the city argue that proper process was kept during the code investigation and the sanctions are reasonable.
Coun. Shila Sharps said she and others have made overtures to settle the issue that have not been reciprocated by Clark.
“Maybe I’m delusional, but once a month I think to myself, ‘Yeah, maybe we can solve this,'” said Sharps. “But the code of conduct issue is not about Ann Mitchell. It is about (the mayor) trying to deflect and not acknowledge her behaviour.”
