Medicine Hat’s mayor says judicial review hearing ‘went well’, hopes ‘lessons learned’

Lawyers representing Clark and the city argued the validity of the sanctions to Justice Rosemary Nation over the course of five hours on Tuesday. Nation said she will make a written ruling by Sept. 30.

While Clark is hopeful that Nation decides to reverse the restrictions and restore her salary in full with back-pay, she isn’t celebrating yet, she told anchor Dan Reynish.

“You just have to keep going one step at a time,” Clark said.

“Certainly, I am really happy that we’ve reached this point in the process and we’ll wait for the decision in September.”

WATCH: One-on-one interview with Mayor Clark

Clark said the city could have avoided going to court.

“It was up to council to put in different sanctions or to remove the sanctions before it got to judicial review,” Clark said.

“I hope that there’s a lot of lessons learned in this process,” she added.

“Whatever the decision that Justice Nation comes out with, she’ll probably have some helpful guidance in there.”

The hearing was described by a political expert as a “schoolyard dispute” and a former politician as an airing of “dirty laundry” amid reaction on Wednesday.

Political consultant Jim Groom said the judicial review could have been avoided by the Alberta government stepping in before the mayor found it necessary to bring the city to court.

In response to Groom, Clark said the judicial review process “has to work itself out.”

However, the mayor highlighted calls from across the province for the Alberta government to create a provincial integrity commissioner to deal with code of conduct complaints before they require sanctions or a court case.

Former Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes, who has followed the ongoing sanctions saga at city hall, said the onus was also on the mayor for not trying to find consensus.

“It’s incumbent on Mayor Clark to go to her councillors, close the door and have a heart-to-heart conversation with them,” he said.

An unredacted version of the third-party Kingsgate Legal report that found “sufficient evidence” Clark broke the conduct bylaw revealed a city leadership in conflict in the days after the Aug. 21, 2023, meeting.

Coun. Shila Sharps asked the mayor to apologize to the city manager the morning after the August meeting. Clark responded that she felt threatened.

Sharps then filed the misconduct complaint that led to the Kingsgate Legal investigation and report that council, sans Sharps, used as the basis on March 21 to remove Clark’s ability to chair meetings, speak on behalf of the city and other sanctions.

Clark, who worked in the city solicitor’s office from 2017 up until she was elected mayor in 2021, said it was strange to sit through a case she was a subject of.

“It was a strange experience in some ways…but I appreciate the city has to make their arguments as well,” Clark said.

She went on to comment on the unique juxtaposition created by the mayor and the city going to court.

“I think it is a bit strange for a municipality to be spending taxpayer dollars going after the mayor,” she added.

During the judicial review hearing, Clark’s lawyer Grant Stapon called Mitchell, the city manager, “a liar”.

When asked returning to a work environment where she’s been allegedly lied to, Clark said the it’s something she has continued to do since the sanctions were imposed.

“I’ve been doing my job for the entire interim period and I will continue to do that,” she said.

“We all have to deal with difficult situations in our work, and as I’ve said before, my job is to serve the people of Medicine Hat and it would be unfair to them if I didn’t do that.”

The city declined to comment on the hearing Wednesday. CHAT News has reached out for comment on Clark’s interview.

— with files from Dan Reynish

by Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat’s mayor says judicial review hearing ‘went well’, hopes ‘lessons learned’

Our Community