Mayor Linnsie Clark will return to the mayor's chair for Tuesday's council meeting. File Photo/CHAT News

By Eli J. Ridder

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Medicine Hat mayor returns to chair packed city council agenda tonight

Sep 3, 2024 | 6:30 PM

When Medicine Hat’s city council meets tonight for the first time in nearly seven weeks, it will be with a changed atmosphere.

While there are several items on the agenda that promise to make it one of the year’s longer public meetings, all eyes will be on a council in conflict, on edge and with nine members that will have to deal with yet another new reality.

Mayor Linnsie Clark will chair the meeting for the first time in half a year after her powers and salary were restored by a Calgary judge in late August, a reversal of most of the sanctions placed on her by council in March.

However, the ruling agreed with council’s finding that Clark broke its code of conduct and kept in place the sanction requesting an apology.

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Justice Rosemary Nation also charged council with working out a sanction that limited the mayor’s interactions with staff.

Both councillors and mayor have found positives in the ruling.

Hatters who have followed along as Clark was investigated, found guilty of breaching the provincially-mandated code by council and then took the city to court have remained largely in the camps they were in from the beginning.

Some support the mayor and others the councillors who limited her powers based on the tense exchange with City Manager Ann Mitchell during an August 2023 public council meeting.

Others still are entirely tired of the ongoing conflict and look forward to election day in 2025 for a new start.

If her supporters like Kym Porter are successful, Clark will enter the council chambers the same way she entered after the sanctions were first imposed: to applause and a standing ovation.

During many of those first post-sanction meetings, acting mayor Andy McGrogan made use of his gavel to demand order. Will Clark do the same to her own supporters?

That’s one question of many for those watching Clark closely as she returns, fully empowered as mayor again. What kind of mayor will she be?

Will she be conciliatory and give the apology council has asked for all along? Will she look to reassert herself as a mayor who isn’t looking back? Something different?

When Clark kicks off the meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the council chamber tonight, there will be lots to get through on a packed agenda.

After greetings and many, many committee meeting minutes from over the summer break, the public portion of tonight’s gathering will really kick off with a demonstration of myMH, the new citizen portal.

That will be followed up by a presentation on Medicine Hat’s support for Jasper and how the city can take what it learned from the experience and apply it to its various official plans.

There will three public hearings tonight.

The off-site levy bylaw is back. There will be an introduction from a city planner and a municipal engineer ahead of a public hearing and second and third readings.

The second hearing will be about rejigging 3101 Box Springs Way NW from a cannabis production facility to a greenhouse. It aligns with the area’s industrial use and is likely to get approved by council.

The final public hearing of the night regards an application to demolish two garages and a shed at 3180 Gershaw Drive SW. That’s also likely to get the stamp of approval.

The first bit of new business is in regards to a second round of the federal housing accelerator initiative.

City administration is recommending that council not direct staff to apply again because the parametres have changed to specifically target communities of high growth, which Medicine Hat is not.

Medicine Hat failed to receive funding last time around in 2023.

Staff are recommending that council not grant Atlantis Research Labs a requested tax exemption. The facility, part of the broader Atlantis Group of Companies, is one of Medicine Hat’s aerospace businesses.

Moving on to a more light-hearted item, council will then consider financial support for the Tigers, only if the franchise hosts the Memorial Cup.

One superfan is hopeful council signs off on the $1.25-million ask.

The final item of new business is a first reading of a land use bylaw rezoning for 965 and 969 Second Street SE.

There are two items listed under committee business: a recommendation to opt out of the direct municipal involvement in waste management under an Alberta framework and consideration of a non-statutory hearing in the off-site levy process.

The council meeting will end with a notice of motion from Coun. Andy McGrogan to propose council request a municipal inspection from the Alberta government, as first reported by CHAT News last week.

Tonight’s council meeting can be watched in-person at Medicine Hat City Hall or streamed via the city’s YouTube channel.