Coun. Andy McGrogan speaks during an interview on CHAT News on April 9, 2024. (CHAT News)

By Eli J. Ridder | @EliRidder

Medicine Hat council able to work with sanctioned mayor but is not thriving, says councillor

Apr 9, 2024 | 4:02 PM

Medicine Hat city council is still able to work with Mayor Linnsie Clark despite sanctions it levied against her but the governing body is not working at its optimal capacity, according to Coun. Andy McGrogan.

WATCH NOW: McGrogan’s April 9 interview on CHAT News

“Absolutely,” McGrogan said Tuesday in response to CHAT News anchor Dan Reynish when asked if council and Clark could get along.

Clark and most of her colleagues were able to agree that establishing an independent integrity commissioner could be the best option for its code of conduct complaint process.

While a motion from Clark to get feedback from staff on focusing solely on researching the integrity commissioner failed due to a 4-4 tie vote, many councillors still supported that as the best option.

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But council voted unanimously to request staff explore several different avenues.

Some of those other options included an internal process through the Administrative and Legislative Review Committee, an idea its chair McGrogan was against.

“If there’s a code of conduct [complaint], we’re kind of the gatekeeper,” he said, explaining there would be conflict there with three members of council sitting on the review committee.

“It just smells wrong and probably is wrong, so to look at an integrity commissioner is a really good idea,” he added.

In a short but wide-ranging interview on CHAT News at Noon, McGrogan said his experience on council has been disappointing and hasn’t lived up to what he thought it would be.

“I don’t really feel like we really got traction as a group, and there’s a whole lot of reasons for that. But I’m just one of nine,” he added, declining to go into further detail.

“I don’t think that we’ve been cohesive. I don’t know if we’ve been collaborating at the level that we could…I mean, we’re functioning,” McGrogan said, adding he is “quite disappointed” by council.

“”I could have used the word ‘we want to thrive’, which, of course we do…but functioning is a heck of a start.”

Council meets next on April 22.

— with files from Dan Reynish