Medicine Hat councillor has mixed feelings about unredacted complaint report

Sharps filed a complaint against Mayor Linnsie Clark over a tense exchange Clark had with City Manager Ann Mitchell over procedure at an August 2023 public meeting.

That complaint led to a third-party investigation and report that council, with the exception of Sharps as the complainant, used as the basis to sanction Clark and cut her salary in half earlier this year.

The city released a heavily-redacted version of the report in March. Clark later released the files she submitted to the investigator.

But it was only through the court where Clark filed for a judicial review in an attempt to undo the sanctions that the full, unredacted report became accessible.

That finally shed more light on Sharps’ complaint.

“It was pretty clear that night that I felt like that should stop and that was the whole reason that I actually did the code of conduct [complaint],” Sharps said.

Sharps said she did not have any goal of hurting an individual’s reputation with the complaint.

“People do need to understand, though, when the Kingsgate report was given to the city, there’s an obligation to redact before it’s issued,” she said.

Alberta’s freedom of information and privacy laws mandate that certain documents receive redaction, such as the report.

“I would hope that we would always protect somebody’s reputation. I might have wrote the [complaint], but I have no wish to watch anybody’s reputation get tarnished, that’s just not cool,” Sharps added.

“We’ve heard a lot about transparency and openness, a huge letter like that being redacted is probably the opposite of transparent.”

‘Ask him anything’

Sharps also touched on the departure of former city clerk Larry Randle, reflecting on a phone they had soon after he started in the role.

“The first time I met Larry Randle was actually on a phone call,” Sharps said. Randle hadn’t even started in the role and he reached out to help her prepare to chair a meeting in an 8 p.m. phone call.

“He was just fantastic, you could go to him with anything, ask him anything, he was always kind,” Sharps added.

“He was so kind and never just thought you should should know something, he just always was willing to have that conversation with you. So [an] incredible loss for our city.”

A source told CHAT News that Randle left, in part, due to abuse he experienced from members of the community, including a pair of online commentators and a resident advocate.

Randle was the fourth city clerk in just a few years when he was hired in August 2023. The role, among other senior positions such as the city manager, have seen high turnover rates.

“We’ve got to figure out a way how to stop these losses, but it’s not because — and I’m going to be very candid — it’s not the city,” Sharps said.

Instead, the turnover is due to the how staff are treated by the public at-large.

— with files from Dan Reynish

by Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat councillor has mixed feelings about unredacted complaint report

‘Ask him anything’

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