Former Medicine Hat mayor Ted Clugston speaks during CHAT News at Noon on April 11, 2024. (Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News)

By Eli J. Ridder | @EliRidder

EXCLUSIVE

Ex-Medicine Hat mayor suspects deeper reasons for Linnsie Clark sanctions, says council is ‘done’

Apr 11, 2024 | 1:03 PM

Former Medicine Hat mayor Ted Clugston said Thursday the sanctions on his successor Linnsie Clark were so extreme that there must be more going on behind the scenes at what he sees as a dysfunctional city council.

WATCH: One-on-one interview with anchor Dan Reynish

“There’s got to be something more because this just seems disproportionate,” Clugston said of the move by councillors to strip Clark of her powers after finding she broke council’s code of conduct.

Clugston, who served a combined four terms on council, called Clark’s push for the city manager to abide by procedure “correct” but criticized the way she went about it.

“There’s needing to be right and there’s being humble when you’re correct,” Clugston said of a tense exchange between Clark and City Manager Ann Mitchell in August 2023.

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“There’s also ramming it down people’s throats needing to be correct and prove to everyone that you are, and so that was the unfortunate part,” he told anchor Dan Reynish in a one-on-one interview.

While councillors and the mayor have insisted council can continue doing business amid the sanctions and an upcoming judicial review, Clugston was less optimistic.

“They’re done. There will be no trust going forward, whether she get back as mayor or not, they won’t trust her and she won’t trust them.”

Clugston failed to win a third term as mayor in the 2021 municipal election that Clark won with over 65 per cent of the vote.

‘A pattern of behaviour’

Clugston, who served two terms as a councillor and two as mayor, said the consequences imposed on Clark indicates deeper issues.

“It totally looks like she got caught shoplifting and they sentenced her to 25 years-to-life but you have to be a fool to believe that that’s the only reason that they sanction,” Clugston said.

Instead of an overreach, Clugston said council’s actions were in response to “a pattern of behaviour” from Clark.

That Coun. Robert Dumanowski in the two decades he has spent on council has never sanctioned a mayor before points to what must be a bigger issue, the former mayor argued.

“There’s got to be something more nefarious going on here,” Clugston said.

Councillors have maintained they are unable to speak in detail about the decision to find Clark guilty of misconduct and take away her powers because those discussions took place during a series of closed meetings.

— with files from Dan Reynish