081724 - Mayor Linnsie Clark sits at a council meeting in this 2024 NEWs file photo.
@@CollinGallant
Hatters have called for the Province of Alberta to help settle a dispute at Medicine Hat City council, but the News has learned such an attempt happened in July, however, to apparently little success.
A meeting with Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver, all council members, including Mayor Linnsie Clark, and some senior staff officials took place during Medicine Hat Stampede Week.
The purpose was to budge positions of the two sides of a public dispute between council and Clark that was set to move to judicial review two weeks later.
That hearing took place on Tuesday, a sign the meeting in Medicine Hat wasn’t successful, though the ministry says it is still awaiting a formal response from council.
McIver travelled to “hear the perspective of each member of council and offer ministry supports to help council find common ground,” read a statement from the ministry.
“During that meeting, council members committed to consider the Minister’s offer and will respond following council’s August 19 meeting. Municipal Affairs remains available to provide advisory support as needed.”
Sources told the News that all nine council members were given a speaking term at the meeting, held in the afternoon following the Medicine Hat Stampede Parade on July 25.
Citing reverence for the meeting’s confidential nature, attendees only spoke with the News about general efforts to smooth the rocky relationship between mayor and council that began in early 2023 and continued until this week’s court hearing.
“I would 100 per cent go to mediation – we’ve all offered that,” said Coun. Ramona Robins.
“The community thinks that there are eight of us who don’t like her, but that’s not the case. I don’t want to trash anybody, but it (mediation) hasn’t happened.”
During the court hearing at the Calgary Court Centre, Clark’s legal team argued that sanctions – including reduced duties and a $68,000 pay cut – are disproportionate and the finding that she mistreated city manager Ann Mitchell was flawed.
City lawyers defended the council motion that found Clark breached a code of conduct and said duties were removed after council lost faith in her abilities to chair meetings or speak on council’s behalf in an impartial manner.
Clark, who did not respond to interview requests about the McIver meeting, told the News earlier this week that she felt council had the power to reverse their decision before the hearing.
“I always have hope, but it rests with the seven councillors that made the choice to put in the sanction,” said Clark on Thursday.
“I do feel aggrieved by the sanctions and what’s occurred. I suggest that if they want to address the sanctions they could do that.”
“There have been discussions, but I think it’s pretty clear based on the written correspondence what my position on the sanctions are.”
Clark’s lawyer asked that Justice Rosemary Nation quashed the council motion rather than send it back to council for reconsideration with suggestions – which can be a common remedy in judicial reviews.
Council members said Thursday that Clark has rebutted overtures towards resolution in the past.
“We’ve had many attempts at mediation with significant fail,” said Coun. Cassi Hider, who has been outspoken since the hearing and said she hoped positions would soften as time wore on and the toll the controversy was having on council’s working relationship was impressed upon Clark be the province.
“That did not occur.”
When the sanctions were laid down in March, the ministry stated it was aware of the issue, but added it has a limited formal power in dealing with internal disputes on local councils.
“The Municipal Government Act Does not provide the Minister of Municipal Affairs with any role in the adjudication of sanctions imposed by council under a code of conduct bylaw,” read a statement at the time.
Four council members expressed frustration with the controversy in comments on Thursday, while a a fifth said the entire controversy is a distraction and should “take a back seat.”
City council cancelled its open meeting planned for Monday, but an agenda shows one undisclosed item will be discussed in closed session.
