Medicine Hat city council: Staff expenses, The Mustard Seed shelter, HR metrics

City council, facing requests from several non-profits for money, asked staff to create a more structured way to rate their asks, as opposed to making one-off decisions tied, in part, to timing and emotions.

The city in February revealed its new application process, however, it was only for capital grants, leaving requests for operating cash without its own process.

Hider aims to fill that gap when her motion previewed earlier this month comes to council at tonight’s meeting.

An operating grant structure was largely expected by senior staff after the capital grant application process was created.

It will open the door for HALO Air Ambulance to revive its effort to ask council to provide the service with $250,000 a year.

A prior effort to get the HALO funding included in the 2025-26 city budget failed after council decided not to make a decision until a grant application process was developed.

Staff expenses

Coun. Andy McGrogan two weeks ago previewed a motion to direct city staff to publish the expenses of senior administrators twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall.

That includes the chief administrative officer, Ann Mitchell, managing directors and directors.

The expenses would include line item details such as business travel, meals and various other costs, McGrogan said at the March 3 meeting.

“Taxpayers have the right to know, and it shouldn’t be an onerous process for them to find out what city staff are making, what the expenses are,” he told reporters then.

“They can tell my expenses, and I’m quite happy to demonstrate them.”

The Mustard Seed

McGrogan also provided a notice of motion at the last council meeting to instruct staff to look into the current zoning for The Mustard Seed’s emergency shelter.

At a meeting of the Municipal Planning Commission in February, residents raised concerned over the validity of the shelter’s development permit.

McGrogan, who chairs the MPC, said the ask is just to get information.

“I’m not expecting anything other than just informing our community what it is right now,” McGrogan said.

Multi-year tax incentive program

City council will hear about a proposal to amend a bylaw to allow for a multi-year tax incentive program that would encourage housing construction.

Changes to the Municipal Government Act last year open the door for the incentives.

It’s an enabling tool and municipalities set parameters by bylaw, according to a staff report to council.

The motion before council Monday will direct staff to return with the proposal for the incentive program in the second quarter.

Motions from Sharps

Coun. Shila Sharps plans to propose an advance motion related to Medicine Hat city hall’s human resource metrics at tonight’s council meeting, she told CHAT News last week.

Several high-level staff have left the city in recent months. The councillor didn’t say if her request is related to those departures.

Sharps is also planning a notice of motion related to budget amendments and a discussion on tariffs placed on Canadian goods by the United States.

Sharps did not share the text of the motions or what prompted them with CHAT News.

While they weren’t included on the council agenda for Monday, the notices of motion are still expected to be read out.

by Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat city council: Staff expenses, The Mustard Seed shelter, HR metrics

Operating grants

Staff expenses

The Mustard Seed

Multi-year tax incentive program

Motions from Sharps

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