Medicine Hat retains lawyer to handle resident’s repeated complaints in effort to protect staff

Gwendolyn J. Stewart‑Palmer, lawyer at Shores Jardine LLP, responded to one of Frey’s recent emails on Tuesday saying she was retained by the city “to assist them in relation to your correspondence”, in a message seen by CHAT News.

“In future, should you have further matters or communications in relation to the City of Medicine Hat, can you kindly send them to me as I will be the point of contact for future communications between you and the city,” she wrote.

Stewart-Palmer did not give any other details and attempts to reach her office on Thursday were unsuccessful.

The city in November 2023 decided to “temporarily limit communication” with Frey to protect the mental health of its employees, saying in a letter her interactions with city hall have been “accusatory and unconstructive.”

Medicine Hat’s chief administrator Ann Mitchell said Frey was “not communicating in good faith.” Mitchell in an exclusive interview with CHAT News in September that respectful dialogue is important.

Despite the communications protocol, city staff and council have continued to respond to some of Frey’s emails. In many of the messages, Frey is asking for policies and information related to how council’s made decisions, such as covering the city manager’s legal fees.

Frey has also filed several requests under Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection and Privacy Act.

The provincial privacy commissioner denied the city’s application to ignore her information requests, forcing the city clerk’s office to follow through on Frey’s ask, contributing to the workload of an already-drained department, according to officials.

A former city clerk, Larry Randle, left the job, in part, because he was overwhelmed with emails from Frey, according to a source who spoke to CHAT News on the condition of anonymity.

Frey said Thursday she feels targeted by the city.

“The emotional and physical effect of having to defend myself or be attacked constantly over the last year are enormous; it’s emotionally draining,” Frey told CHAT News in an interview.

“But what is the option? The option for me is, To keep fighting because I don’t want anyone to have to go through what I’ve gone through.”

The city said in a statement to CHAT News on Wednesday that responding to residents and providing information to the public is a “core principle and duty of local government” and that its staff approach each inquiry “in good faith”.

“Occasionally, public organizations find themselves in a position where the volume or nature of inquiries from one individual or group reaches a scale that is beyond reasonable and/or becomes unmanageable,” the city added.

“In this instance, we have established a process to channel all requests through a conduit of communications to ensure a more constructive arrangement.”

The city said it is “obliged under the Occupational Health and Safety Act to ensure a psychologically and physically safe work environment for all employees”, echoing part of the reason Frey was placed on a communications protocol to begin with.

The statement went on, saying the city is “prepared to take steps that both protect the well-being of employees and ensure they are able to be productive in their roles.”

“City employees continue to focus attention on major initiatives that are in the best interest of our community including the development of the 2025-2026 budget, energy review and strategy, and developing plans to support city council’s recently refined strategic priorities.”

City manager Mitchell used much of the same language as the public statement in an email sent to all city staff this week that was seen by CHAT News.

Mitchell added instructions for how they should manage Frey’s correspondence.

“While being responsive is very important to us, we have made the difficult decision to enlist external support in responding to inquiries from a resident in our community named Nicole Frey,” Mitchell wrote.

The city manager added that all messages from Frey to employees should be forwarded to the city clerk so they can be “triaged and managed through this external process.”

‘Token troublemaker’

Frey, who launched the Animal Food Bank charity, first got involved in local politics during widespread backlash to the city’s high electricity rates in the summer of 2023.

She played a role in pressuring council to reign in the rates, along with other concerned residents, finding success when council spent millions on utility relief.

In the fall of 2023, Frey launched a pair of petitions that appeared to receive some widespread support but ultimately failed to reach a high bar set by Alberta’s Municipal Government Act.

Her petition to recall the mayor received 7,843 signatures, falling short of the 25,000 required by provincial law to be successful. Another petition requesting a municipal inspection also fell short.

After those attempts, Frey started to file dozens of FOIP requests in an attempt to get information from the city about salaries and policies. She has also sent several emails a week to staff and council.

She has also raised concerns about Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Justin Wright’s exclusive contracts to operate his food truck business at city-owned concessions. Wright has denied any conflict of interest.

Frey said the city shouldn’t complain about her repeated messages.

“The emails are symptomatic of the problem. The problem is a lack of transparency and trust,” Frey said in an interview with CHAT News.

Frey said she only starting filing FOIP requests because the city instructed her to.

“Someone said on Facebook today (that) they’ve made me the token troublemaker. They’ve identified me as a representation of everything that is wrong with the public.”

When the communications protocol was placed on Frey last year, the city didn’t yet have a detailed policy in place outlining the rules for proper communication with the municipality.

Its since passed a new public code of conduct that councillors said aims to restore civility.

CHAT News did not receive immediate clarity on if the new lawyer put in place to respond to Frey’s questions is part of that new code, which includes consequences for residents who subject staff to “unreasonable behaviour”.

‘Not productive’

Paul Salvatore, CEO of Municipal Experts, Inc., said Thursday it’s the first time he’s seen a city hire a lawyer to handle emails from a resident.

He said the city was making it clear it would not stand by as Frey continued to email staff and council.

Salvatore gave the analogy of someone who complains about a cup of coffee every day but, after the barista changes the recipe to address the concerns, the customer still complains.

Also, the customer is “abusive, hostile and negative towards the staff member who was serving that coffee,” he said.

“Chances are very good that the business owner in that situation would just request that individual to not come back,” Salvatore added, saying the city is the owner in the situation and Frey is the customer.

“All you’re doing is taking resources away from staff that need to do their job. And you’re also making a spectacle and presenting a level of toxicity in your interaction that is not going to help anyone in the end,” he said.

Frey disagreed with the analogy.

“His analogy is wrong. They won’t even admit theres something wrong with the coffee. His assumption is the city is providing responses and I keep pressing,” Frey said.

“The city is not providing responses.”

Salvatore said he sympathizes with those who are critical of their municipal governments but added it’s important for staff to be shielded.

“I can understand a citizen that has issues with a municipality. But at the same time, I would also say that there is a responsibility here for the employer to be vigilant and protective staff,” he said.

Several of Frey’s supporters were on Thursday afternoon considering wearing pins or items of clothing showing their support for Frey at the next city council meeting on Monday.

by Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat retains lawyer to handle resident’s repeated complaints in effort to protect staff

‘Token troublemaker’

‘Not productive’

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