70 recommendations made in Medicine Hat inspection

The province has wrapped up its inspection of the City of Medicine Hat, conducted after disagreements between the mayor, council and chief administrator.

A municipal inspection of Medicine Hat has been completed, resulting in dozens of recommendations.

The city asked for the inspection in September 2024 after months of disagreements between the mayor, council and chief administrator. It was then ordered by the minister of Alberta Municipal Affairs.

The final 207-page report was presented during a council meeting on Monday.

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“The bottom line seems to be that the decision was that they contravene the Municipal Governance Act, and as a result, they have to have some consequences for that,” said Jim Groom, a political scientist based in Medicine Hat.

Along with 70 recommendations, the report also included three directives from the minister of municipal affairs that must be followed.

These include council and the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) reviewing the recommendations and reporting to the minister, as well as making the report publicly available.

Council, the CAO and other designated officers must also complete respectful workplace training.

“There’s less than 100 days left in this council, and I would not expect this to make any drastic changes in any way, shape or form, and it was evident by the council meeting last night that there’s still a lot of animosity, still a lot of personality clashes,” said Groom.

The report says council has been operating in a somewhat hostile environment since early on in its terms.

That was highlighted by an exchange between Mayor Linnsie Clark and the city manager Ann Mitchell that led to council moving to sanction the mayor and cut her pay in half.

A Calgary judge later reversed that decision.

Council and others in city hall are working to repair those relationships.

“There’s still some ambiguity about how do we get to the to the right area of correcting this? Whose fault it is isn’t the right thing, but what was the precipice? How do we get past that? What’s the crux?” said Medicine Hat city councillor Shila Sharps.

The report says the residents of Medicine Hat did not lose out on programs or services because of council infighting, but it also called governance function of the city ineffective and noted that distrust made it difficult to make effective decisions.

A new council will be elected this fall, and the hope is to start the new term on the right foot.

“We are making sure that we have a very robust orientation for the new council coming in in October,” said Mitchell. “I’ve been a city manager for 20 years, so I’ve gone through a few orientations and so has our clerk, so knowing best practices is really important.”

CTV news reached out to Clark and will update this article if and when a response is received.

The full report can be read on the City of Medicine Hat’s website.