Coun. Robert Dumanowski speaks at a city council meeting in this November 2023 file photo. The seven-term councillor has provided a lengthy statement to the News regarding the riff between council members and the mayor.--News File Photo
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The longest serving member of Medicine Hat city council says he stands by the decision to sanction Mayor Linnsie Clark, though there will be “no clear winners or losers” in the controversy that he says been obscured for the public.
In a long statement to the News, Coun. Robert Dumanowski writes that Clark has misconstrued policy related to practice in corporate reorganization at the centre of a heated exchange between her and city manager Ann Mitchell one year ago.
“It is important for the public to understand that a reorganization is not something that can be magically implemented in a single council meeting, with everything seemingly falling into place immediately afterward,” he writes, saying that during more than 20 years in city council, past rounds of hirings, layoffs and changes happened in a similar fashion.
“This is how it’s done – period.”
That comment echoes a statement from Dumanowski in the days after Clark questioned Mitchell at the Aug. 21, 2023 meeting of council.
Clark argued that council’s approval of wording in an organizational bylaw – being debated that night – represented final approval before actual changes should have taken place. As such, she argued, Mitchell usurped council’s authority with changes the month before.
Clark’s lawyer argued at the review there is a fatal flaw in the findings of an outside investigation relied on in council’s decision. It didn’t consider Clark’s position, or what they describe as interference from Mitchell in months leading up as context.
“When the foundation is rotten, the decision must fall,” said Grant Stapon, of the law firm Bennett Jones, at this month’s hearing.
City legal representatives say the actions of the manager aren’t at issue in the council’s sanctioning decision. They say Clark went beyond her oversight role to a public performance appraisal during 10 minutes of questioning Mitchell before councillors called for a vote.
Dumanowski says council felt the goal was public humiliation, and they lost confidence in Clark’s ability to perform her leadership duties as a result.
“Public office requires looking beyond one’s own singular perspective,” Dumanowski writes. “Instead, it requires one to consider the broader public interest at every corner. To that end, I find myself with no other choice but to remain hopeful that the final year of this term can be salvaged, and that the fractured relationship between the mayor, the councillors and senior administration can be repaired. Regardless of the outcome of the judicial review, there will be no clear winners or losers.”
Last spring, the seven-term council member was among seven councillors who agreed with an external investigation that Clark breached council’s code of conduct and then voted to limit her duties, interaction with staff and cut her pay in half, a loss of nearly $70,000.
The entire 1,300-word statement is too long to print for logistical reasons, but appears in full on the News website under the “Letters to the Editor” section. It can be found here.
The News has offered similar space to Clark.
Clark has recently said the issues are still in the hands of a Court of King’s Bench justice – a written decision is expected late next month – and won’t discuss specific issues in her complaint.
But, she told the News the judgment should provide “guidance” to council on how to proceed with the issue.
Dumanowski offered little public comment following a judicial review called for by Clark, but other councillors have detailed their offers of mediation to the mayor over the past 18 months.
They, and now Dumanowski, imply that Clark has put the issue ahead of working collaboratively, but the issue has been posed as council punishing Clark.
“This was not a personal vendetta, as has been shamefully suggested, but rather the outcome of one person’s words and actions beyond my control,” he wrote.
The corporate changes eliminated two positions in the mayor’s office – a communications person and a chief of staff in charge of lobbying – in the interest of cost savings. At that point, Clark’s objections began increasing, said Dumanowski.
The reorganization also eliminated a division of “strategy and analysis” that was created in the former term to report directly to the previous city manager. That resulted in several layoffs while other positions were transferred o other divisions that report to separate council committees.
