Medicine Hat mayor ‘fairly confident’ limits on her movement at city hall will be rescinded

A Calgary judge in August 2024 reversed four of six sanctions that council had earlier imposed on Clark, calling them disproportionate. Justice Rosemary Nation left in place a requirement that Clark apologize to the city manager, an edict the mayor fulfilled in September.

Nation sent a sanction prohibiting Clark from entering the administration area of city hall and banning any direct contact with city staff other than the city manager back to council to work out.

Coun. Shila Sharps put forward a notice of motion at Monday’s public meeting for council to start deliberating in private, setting up those discussions to start as early as next month if councillors back the formal motion that will come in two weeks.

Clark said Tuesday she’s hopeful council will decide to lift the sanctions.

“I have decided that maybe I’m not that great at predicting what will happen, but I do feel fairly confident,” Clark told CHAT News.

“I think council wants to turn over a new leaf,” she added.

“Hopefully council can see that I haven’t done anything inappropriate and they’ll just eliminate the sanctions.”

Since March 2024, Clark has been prohibited from entering the administration area of city hall and banned from direct contact with city staff other than chief administrator Ann Mitchell.

The mayor was instructed to communicate with Mitchell only by emails that must be copied to the rest of council or if the CAO agrees to meet with Clark in-person, in the presence of a councillor.

In her ruling, Nation wrote the sanction “unreasonably restricts” Clark who, as part of her mayor duties, needs to carry out city business.

Nation decided to send the sanction back to council “to reconsider the appropriate restriction that reasonably protects the city manager but does not restrict Clark from performing her duties as mayor.”

Clark told CHAT News anchor Dan Reynish in a year-end interview that she still felt “isolated” at city hall because of the constraints.

Council had not formally addressed the remaining restriction in the months since the ruling until Monday.

“It’s been five months without this issue appearing on the agenda. I’m putting forth this motion for council to prioritize this matter by placing it on the closed agenda in the near future for immediate deliberation,” Sharps said as she announced the notice of motion.

“We frequently request administration perform various functions and reconsider decisions, and we always put timelines and ask for actions to be immediate. Our community has become frustrated with our inaction,” Sharps added.

“I know that there was no ill intention by anybody around this horseshoe, but it has gotten away from us.”

Clark is certain the part of the sanction removing her access to the administrative area will have to be rescinded.

“The justice said that you can’t unduly prevent the mayor from doing her duties, that locking me out of that area was never appropriate,” Clark said Tuesday.

“So, I don’t think that they’ll be able to uphold that part of the sanction and be consistent with the court’s decision.”

— with files from Dan Reynish

by Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat mayor ‘fairly confident’ limits on her movement at city hall will be rescinded

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