Municipal Inspection Report - First Glance

Sept 3 2024

The Municipal Inspection Report was published Monday night on the government website and it appears to be very critical of Council training and of the mayor in particular when addressing the dysfunction of Council. A lot of background was left out.

The toxicity at City Hall did not start with the Council elected in 2021, it goes back much further than that. I think it is fair to say that the previous toxicity carried on into the next Council.

Background

In 2021, there were 7 new faces at the table, only 2 incumbents retained their seats. Three councillors decided not to run again, a fourth passed away before election day. At the very least, there would be four new faces at the horseshoe.

It is hoped (and assumed) that the incumbents would assist the new faces. Indeed I saw that behaviour right after the election when I saw Councillor Dumanowski go and assist a new councillor during a council meeting.

Teamwork is absolutely necessary when working in a group of nine. Whether they would be the Fellowship of the Ring or the Nine Riders would depend on the atmosphere - an atmosphere of friendly cooperation vs an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

The toxicity at City Hall predates the current council; seven new faces did little to dispel it. They did start strong with a Council Employee Committee only to be told in April 2022 by Interim City Manager Merete Heggelund that she never would have approved that committee if she had been Acting City Manager at the time.

The Interference of Previous Losing Councillors Did Not Help

Former Councillor Phil Turnbull had been calling for Mayor Clark to resign.

Former Mayor Ted Clugston (who received about 1/3 of the votes that Linnsie Clark did) has said that if he was the subject of a recall petition, he would move to Mexico; he also called this council a "train wreck". Clugston went on to say that the severe sanctions must mean there is something nefarious going on.

It was not the first time Clugston has gone rogue and convince others to do the same.

Clugston Spearheaded the Hat's Boycott of 2019 FCM Conference

Clugston and the 2019 Council spread that toxicity to other parts of Canada when he and the rest of Council unanimously boycotted the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference held in Quebec City. Clugston said that Quebec's elected officials were “poorly informed, misaligned and ignorant.”

The 2019 Council  had an opportunity to go there, listen to the concerns about pipelines and talk to people about their views. They could have informed people about pipeline safety, dispelled possible misconceptions and plant a seed into changing minds. Instead they chose to stay home and pout; I’m quite sure that nobody noticed their absence.

 Btw, municipalities don't make decisions about provincial issues.

Clugston did try unsuccessfully to get other Alberta municipalities to boycott the conference. Barry Morishita (former Brooks mayor and former Alberta Party leader) was the president of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) at that time. He posted this opinion piece before the conference.

Excerpt

AUMA, along with Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA), Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), and other municipal associations across Canada are coming together to coordinate the Support Canadian Energy campaign as part of the FCM conference. We are doing this to set the framework for us to engage in two-way conversations with other leaders across the country, not only to hear the Alberta perspective, but for us to hear their perspectives as well. 

A respectful debate cannot happen if we are not all at the table. We cannot learn and understand from each other if we shut down the conversation before it can even occur. Boycotting FCM is taking a firm position and saying there is no interest in participating in respectful debate in pursuit of achieving a common understanding about how resource development – not just oil and gas – benefits and impacts our communities.

Did it change Quebec’s stance on pipelines? 

No, it did not.

Did Quebec even care?

Not likely.

Did Medicine Hat appear to cut off its nose to spite its face?

I'd think so.

Hmm, this is starting to sound familiar. The Current Situation

The current situation stems from the events that led to the Shitshow Showdown of August 21 2023 after City Manager Ann Mitchell bypassed our own AO Bylaw 4662 behind closed doors. Mayor Clark (who worked for the City of Medicine Hat as a lawyer) raised this issue with Council members. Mitchell claimed she had a legal opinion from the City Solicitor saying she could do this. 

Fact check - she did not

It is apparent that Councillors did not even ask to see this alleged legal opinion from our City Solicitor. If they had, they would have understood that it did not exist. Just asking for that one single document could have saved

• a lot of wasted time and money (at least $250k for legal fees, probably a lot more)

• the publicity of a judicial review and how our Council is incapable of working and playing well together

• the public ridiculing of Council when the judge said found city councillors, “have no sense of proportionality in crafting sanctions and have imposed sanctions that have no rationale with the breach of the code (of conduct bylaw).” Justice Nation went on to say “this court has found that levying ‘crushing or unfit sanctions’ can have the effect of undermining public confidence in an institution and its processes, ultimately defeating the purpose of their conduct enforcement system.”

The Toxic Culture at City Hall Predates Current Council

When Medicine Hat voted for sweeping changes in 2021, the Old Guard was not happy. The council members who lost their seats could have chosen to assist the rookie council to succeed but most stayed silent. Meanwhile Clugston and Turnbull went on the offensive, firing cheap shots like "train wreck" and "the mayor should resign". One can almost imagine them as rubbing their hands in glee as the Shitshow evolved and they would reclaim their rightful places at the horseshoe.

No Fact Checking

NB - Yes, I work for the Medicine Hat Owl but I do not speak for them on my campaign page. That is the reason I am using "they/them" instead of "us/ we" when I write about the Owl.

The Municipal Inspection Report goes on to mention Mayor Clark's interactions with the Medicine Hat Owl, calling them a "Facebook group".

He apparently completely missed the fact that the Owl holds a Medicine Hat business license, has operated as a media outlet in the Hat for nearly 15 years with a website and a Youtube channel in addition to their social media. The Owl has provided the public with access to Council Committee meetings that the public would otherwise not see unless they watched it live or attended in person.The Owl is the only outlet that broadcasts these meetings on the internet for the public to watch later at their leisure.

The report appears to be subtly accusing The Owl of not fact checking stories by posting an anonymous employees's opinion of their work (pgs .94-95)

Fact Check - McCormack did not fact check this employee's opinion about fact checking - he never called the Medicine Hat Owl.

More to come on this report. There were some good points made by Mr McCormack which I will delve into later.