Medicine Hat mayor’s salary restored as most sanctions reversed in judge’s ruling
Mayor Linnsie Clark’s salary was restored and many of the sanctions placed on her by Medicine Hat’s city council reversed by a Calgary judge, who in a Monday ruling wrote some of the measures were unreasonable — but also agreed Clark broke the code of conduct by mistreating the city manager.
Justice Rosemary Nation, who heard arguments from lawyers from the mayor and city in a hearing this month, said in an 11-page judicial review ruling she decided not to send the issue back to a council unable to match sanctions to the misconduct.
Councillors “appear to have no sense of proportionality in crafting sanctions and have imposed sanctions that have no rational connection with the breach of the code,” Nation wrote, adding it appeared council went down the list to tick off every box found in the code of conduct.
Nation, a justice of the Court of King’s Bench, decided to strike down four of the six sanctions imposed by council on Clark in March, calling them “disproportionate and unreasonable.”