Medicine Hat councillor seeks way for residents to complain about senior city staff

While no resident has been cut off by staff through the policy, emails that appear to threaten its use can have the same effect, Sharps told reporters after the council meeting.

“I want to be very, very clear that our community should be publicly engaging with us, they should be talking to us,” Sharps said.

“If they’re frustrated, that’s just part of our role.”

Sharps said none of the messages she has seen from citizens have risen to the level of abuse. Instead, she said, it appears as though some employees are refusing to answer them.

Over the past two years, several residents have raised concerns about their interactions with city administrator Ann Mitchell and other senior staff. Sharps and other members of council have seen most if not all of those complaints.

Known city critic Nicole Frey, downtown business owner Sabrina Moore, River Heights neighbourhood resident Brock Hale and various other taxpayers have complained about poor treatment from high-level city employees.

Sharps denied she brought her proposal forward because of those residents specifically, instead saying it comes from systemic unfairness in the policy.

“I brought it forward because we have a situation,” she said in response to a CHAT News question.

A second notice of motion from Sharps proposed a policy change so that council would be allowed to seek independent legal advice without requiring approval from city administration.

“The revised policy should also ensure that legal counsel is available in cases of accusations from any person, internally or externally,” Sharps wrote in the advance motion.

Mayor Linnsie Clark in 2023 acquired an outside legal opinion on Mitchell’s reorganization of city hall that year, catching councillors by surprise as they were unaware she did so.

Clark used that legal opinion to place doubt on Mitchell’s authority to make the changes, leading to an argument at an August 2023 public meeting that preceded a misconduct investigation, sanctions, a court case and a leadership crisis that some observers say has defined this term of council.

The mayor postponed a motion planned for Tuesday requesting the City of Medicine Hat reimburse her over $75,000 for costs she accrued for that legal opinion, a court review of the sanctions placed on her by council and other fees over the past two years.

Sharps said her indemnity proposal Tuesday was unrelated to the mayor’s experience.

“I was looking at that solely because there’s potentially a situation that might come forward and when I said ‘oh, hey, how do we idemnify?’, and that led me to this conversation,” Sharps said.

She said that currently the policy directs councillors to go to their employer for external legal costs, an approach Sharps said doesn’t make sense. She pointed out council brought it forward in 2022 but no policy was created at the time.

“It’s just time to elevate it,” Sharps argued.

by Olivia Thorington

Medicine Hat councillor seeks way for residents to complain about senior city staff

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