All eight members of the city's new council voted in favour of committee appointments, adhering to bylaw changes from 2023 that took that power from the mayor.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
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Council as a whole appointed members to standing committees at an organizational meeting on Nov. 3, implementing new procedural changes passed shortly before the election.
The process came into question following the meeting when a number of members of the community reached out to the News for clarification. The bylaw was changed in 2023, stripping the mayor of sole appointment powers and giving them to council as a whole, but Mayor Linnsie Clark says the process was followed properly and backed by council’s eight new members.
According to the new bylaw, council must appoint councillors to committees, boards, commissions and external organizations by Resolution, unless otherwise specified.
Clark says she made recommendations for the appointments at the request of council after soliciting input. She read her recommendations out in council and they were unanimously approved.
According to the bylaw, council appointments are made on the basis of considerations that include the best interests of the city, the skills and experience of members and the desires expressed by members.
“Obviously, it can’t just be based on desire,” Clark told the News on Thursday. “You could have five people that want to all be on the same committee. So one aspect in addition to that would be availability. I think council has an interest in making sure the workload is spread pretty evenly so that we don’t burn people out.”
In the past, councillors have voted on each individual committee appointment, but Clark says that’s a less effective system.
“It didn’t work that great because you’re doing it piecemeal, you’re not looking at the full picture necessarily,” she said. “This works very well. It gives an opportunity to council to raise concerns if they have them. But there were no concerns. Everybody voted in favour.”
The mayor also regained ex-officio status on the new committees.
Changes in 2023 also stated Medicine Hat’s mayor would no longer automatically gain ex-officio committee membership, but a bylaw passed Monday identified Clark as an ex-officio member for each standing committee once again.
Clark told the News in 2023 that most councils in Alberta have the mayor having ex-officio status.
