Coun. Shila Sharps wants accountability for council and the public with a proposed complaint process. (Kevin Kyle/CHAT News)

By Eli J. Ridder | @EliRidder

CITY HALL

Process for public to formally complain about council members coming to Medicine Hat

Nov 21, 2023 | 1:31 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – There will soon be a way for any Medicine Hat resident or city employee to submit a formal complaint about a member of council.

The complaint process will be included in changes to the city’s Code of Conduct bylaw after a motion from Coun. Shila Sharps received unanimous approval Monday.

The process will serve both as a way to address legitimate complaints and reject false claims.

“I am absolutely fine with being held to a code of conduct by the public,” Sharps said as she proposed the motion at council.

However, Sharps noted that many complaints made publicly about council recently would not survive a formal review process.

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“I do believe that if [the] complaints would have actually gone through, 95 per cent of them would have been frivolous and vexatious,” she said.

Mayor Linnsie Clark on Tuesday told anchor Lisa Parent on CHAT News at Noon that current complaint process was internal only.

“Currently, our code of conduct only permits councillors to complain about other councillors,” Clark said.

“But what this would do is open it up so that anyone, any member of the public or staff could lodge a complaint against a councillor. The reason for that is the same as a whisteblower policy; it’s an extra level of governance.”

Creating a public complaint process was one of the demands of a letter sent by 285 residents to Alberta government officials last week.

Supporters of the letter told CHAT News it’s a small win but say that the structure of the complaint process must include members of the public.

Council debated how and by who a complaint would be handled by at city hall but decided to hand the complaint process proposal over to staff and committees to work out the details.

The creation of a complaint process follows several instances where the public has complained about members of council, including a recall petition for the mayor and concerns over alleged “corruption” by some of the Medicine Hat residents.