Ramona Robins, first-term councillor, speaks to CHAT News on June 4, 2024.

By Eli J. Ridder

EXCLUSIVE

Medicine Hat councillor Ramona Robins says she won’t run for re-election

Jun 4, 2024 | 3:15 PM

First-time Medicine Hat city councillor Ramona Robins, an accomplished Crown prosecutor and single mother to twin daughters, told CHAT News on Tuesday she will not run for re-election after what she described as an up-and-down term.

WATCH: Robins interviewed on CHAT News

“I never had any intention to,” Robins told anchor Dan Reynish on CHAT News at Noon, making her the second incumbent councillor to confirm they aren’t running again.

“It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed my time on council, sometimes it’s a lot of fun, sometimes it’s not that much fun. It’s a roller coaster,” she added.

“I’ve sort of deferred some travel plans with my children so that I could be on council, and I owe them my time and the travel I promised them.”

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Robins was speaking a day after council approved a request to ask the province for more police funding, made a budget amendment to the airport master plan, nominated a councillor for an award and denied a tax break to Bevo Farms.

Reflecting on her time on council, Robins said she’s learned a lot more about how the city works since she started in 2021 in comparison to the previous 20 years.

“It’s been very interesting to go behind the scenes and be able to see how the city actually operates,” she said.

The municipal government was thrown into a leadership crisis earlier this year when councillors, including Robins, voted unanimously to sanction Mayor Linnsie Clark and cut her salary in half after finding she broke council’s code of conduct.

Due to those sanctions, the deputy mayor is required to step in as the chair at meetings and as a formal representative of council. Robins started her six-week stint as deputy mayor on Tuesday.

Robins feels she has received unfair criticism from the community.

“Certain people in the community who have been very critical without asking me…I wish those people, if they wanted to understand things better, if they just ask me as you are right now,” she told Reynish.

“Some things I’m not allowed to say,” she added, referring to the province’s Municipal Government Act that sets out rules for closed meetings and what types of topics should remain out of the public.

Robins said she’s not active on social media but those interested can reach members of council on the city’s contact page.

Robins is not the first to deny a re-election effort. Coun. Andy McGrogan in April told CHAT News he had “no intention” of running for mayor, weeks after supporting the sanctions on Clark.

— with files from Dan Reynish