Linnsie Clark being sworn-in as mayor (photo courtesy Derek Brade)

By Teagan Rasche

Mayor and councillors

Swearing-in a new four years

Nov 1, 2021 | 9:33 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Medicine Hat’s new mayor, Linnsie Clark, along with eight councillors, marked their first official day on the job during a small swearing-in ceremony at City Hall Monday night.

In front of a 30-person crowd and hundreds watching online, one by one each council member swore to diligently, faithfully and to the best of their ability execute their roles.

“I feel very excited to get to work,” Clark said. “I’m so grateful to have this opportunity and to not just collaborate with the community and work to meet their needs and the goal that we heard as we were campaigning.”

Once everyone was sworn-in, city clerk Angela Cruickshank read out what committees each councillor is assigned to.

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Clark followed up with a speech.

“We need a city government that has good governance, transparency, accountability, fairness and that is responsive to the community,” Clark said. “As a city government, we need to improve the culture within the city and we need to recognize the value of maintaining and building on what we have.”

The only two incumbent councillors, Darren Hirsch and Robert Dumanowski, will play an important role during these next four years.

“Right from day one Robert Dumanowski and I have extended whatever we can in terms of supporting our fellow councillors and I think we’ll do that all term,” Hirsch said.

Both say being sworn-in Monday night was just as special as past years.

“As an incumbent, there’s certainly an opportunity to reflect on past experiences and sometimes it’s just being able to navigate things and help others through that,” Dumanowski said.

While the short ceremony marked an important day, all the smiling faces around the room know there’s work to be done and they aren’t wasting any time getting started.

“First, we’re going to do our strategic planning, the budget is coming up right away so well need to do that,” Clark said. “Early next year we’ll be starting our strategic planning.”

The next city council meeting is Monday, Nov. 15.