By Eli J. Ridder | @EliRidder

Medicine Hat council to call for ‘civility’ amid employee social media abuse

Apr 22, 2024 | 9:28 PM

City council will feature in a video emphasizing the “importance of civility and respect” as core values of Medicine Hat due to negative treatment city employees have experienced from the community.

A motion from Coun. Ramona Robins to put together a video and statement that includes every member of council passed in a unanimous vote during Monday’s council meeting.

“We deeply respect city staff and their mental health and physical safety and we, as elected officials, have not been able to ensure they have a safe workplace due to the abuse endured in social media and other forms of communication,” Robbins wrote in the motion.

“These are not the values of the City of Medicine Hat and are negatively affecting the ability to recruit and retain talented people,” she added.

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Robins said she isn’t trying to discourage residents from giving feedback to their elected representatives on council but instead about taking city staff out of the line of fire.

“This is really about protecting the city staff who have taken, in my opinion, an undo and unfair brunt of the criticism for decisions council has made,” Robbins said during the meeting.

Coun. Allison Knodel said she wanted to support employees as they do their jobs at the city.

“It’s something that I can’t be a bystander of, especially when it affects those that are just coming to work and trying to do the job that they were hired to do,” Knodel said.

“It affects how their day goes, but it also affects their psyche and their mental health, and I can’t stand by and watch it happen.”

After the meeting, Knodel told reporters there is a lot of contact between council and the community right now due to the sanctions placed on the mayor but questioned if the right mix of voices were being heard.

“I don’t know if it’s balanced across the board as to perspectives,” Knodel said.

“We’re receiving a great deal of concern about the current climate in regards to sanctions on Mayor Clark so I think that’s something that is in front of us and we have to respect the perspectives of everyone in the community,” she added.

“But that doesn’t also open a door for people to start abusing staff. That’s not okay.”