A consultant specializing in municipal governance says the likely scenario in Medicine Hat's city council dispute is riding it out until voters can decide for themselves in an election next fall.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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A municipal consultant says there could be a silver lining after a court hearing into a dispute between Medicine Hat Mayor Linnsie Clark and her council, in that it’s brought some of the background issues to the public.
But, Paul Salvatore forecasts rain clouds going forward.
“At anytime people can say enough is enough and seek alternatives, but with a judicial review (decision) coming at the end of next month, that seems where it is heading,” said Salvatore, who works as a consultant with municipalities in the province on governance and other projects.
Last week, lawyers for Clark and the city laid out their case in Court of King’s Bench – a hearing requested by Clark over council’s 7-0 decision in March to limit her duties and salary substantially for a code of conduct violation last year.
Clark’s lawyer said council was “gunning” for his client, while outside of court, councillors are now telling their version, calling Clark hard to work with and unwilling to engage to resolve the issue.
Exactly one year after Clark grilled city manager Ann Mitchell over how layoffs were handled before council approval, the public is now hearing from sides that once argued court action prevented comment.
That’s generally a good thing, said Salvatore, but may not clear the air or lead to amicable resolution.
“My sense is that with 14 months until the next municipal election, the strategy is probably going to be riding it out until the next election,” said Salvatore.
“Depending on who decides to run, the electorate will make their decision based on what they know and some of the results of the judicial review.”
Clark told the News she feels prevented from discussing matters presented at the hearing in the interest of potentially influencing the justice’s decision, set to be released Sept. 30.
But, Clark told the media last week she feels that will provide “guidance” to council, which she says should have unilaterally ended sanctions which she argues are not reasonable.
Other councillors objected to her assertion that they forced to the issue to court and, instead offered conciliatory talks behind the scenes since early 2023.
Justice Rosemary Nation will rule next month on whether council was fair in deliberating on a code of conduct allegation – including whether their decision was based solely on an Aug. 21, 2023 incident.
Theoretically, that incident makes up the balance of the complaint issue, though Clark outlines preceding actions, which she says adds important context, and some ongoing issues in court applications that she made publicly available on social media last spring.
She says it is her duty to oversee administrators’ actions, while city legal representatives say her conduct crossed into a public job performance review meant to belittle the city manager. As such, they said, council has lost confidence in her.
Since the hearing, councillors have also given their own evaluations of Clark, six telling the News that previous offers of mediation have not proceeded.
In late July, Alberta Municipal Affairs met with all parties – something many in the community were asking for – offering suggestions about breaking the impasse, but the judicial hearing proceeded two weeks later with no action taken.
Salvatore said that is an unusual step which speaks to the level of discord.
“The province can step in and try to resolve issues,” he said. “But they don’t want to be the referee for every municipality.”
He felt the court case adds to the negativity surrounding the issues.
“Unfortunately it is one of those situations where, to get an upper hand, there’s a confrontation in a courtroom which pulls out all the negative comments,” said Salvatore.
“(Now) there’s an ability to speak more freely by a number of councillors, because some comments that were privileged (under closed meeting rules) were alluded to during the hearing,
“Things they wish they could have said along the way, they felt they now have time and space to do that.”
