Trish Richards has been hired as the new operations manager for the CCDA. She is replacing Robin Anton who resigned ( Tiffany Goodwein/CHATNEWS)

By Tiffany Goodwein

New CCDA manager ready to take on role despite upcoming vote to disband

May 10, 2021 | 7:00 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB- Days before stakeholders head to the polls to vote on disbanding the CCDA, the organization has announced the hiring of a new operations manager.

Trish Richard has been hired to take on the role. Her previous experience includes roles with No Stone Left Alone and The Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta. She replaces Robin Anton who resigned.

Richard told CHAT News that she’s ready for the challenge, even if it is short-lived.

“I hope to bring an open-door policy to all the stakeholders in downtown Medicine Hat. I know that there has been issues in the past with lack of transparency and not feeling like they can communicate, so I want to open up that communication and in turn, a lot of collaboration will come from that,” Richards said.

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Earlier this year, a petition was launched to disband the CCDA. The petition was fueled by stakeholders who said they were fed up with the organization following years of frustration. Jan Crommer is a stakeholder. She told CHAT News she’s not a fan of the mandatory enrollment. She’s also concerned about a lack of transparency in the budget, especially recently with events in limbo due to the pandemic.

“Last year many of those events did not occur, and they did a proposed budget again this year for those events to occur, they haven’t occurred. Again, where is the money going for that? I question the role of the CCDA that has seemed to have come across, from the budget’s perspective as event planning, as opposed to revitalizing the downtown,” Crommer said.

Stakeholders go to the polls this Tuesday, May 11, and Thursday, May 13. If the vote to disband gets passed, Richard’s position will be done.

“I came on knowing it is a risk, and it is a temporary position and is considered a temporary position until anything else is decided after this week and so I’m good with that,” Richard said.

But some downtown stakeholders like Lorraine Dalla-Longa were taken aback that the organization would even consider hiring someone when a vote is set to occur in a matter of days.

“It was not hard to get signatures to disband the CCDA. The stakeholders want to do away with the CCDA and they want something new and exciting whatever it is going to be. So when I heard that they had hired somebody, I just don’t know what they were thinking. I mean quit kicking a dead horse,” she said.

Shila Sharps, another downtown stakeholder who spearheaded the petition echoed similar views.

“There has to be better accountability to money, people, and places. At the end of the day this young lady is very passionate about joining and good for her. But she could be out of a job in five days, and nobody should have that on her resume, a five-day stint. I think when you hire somebody you owe them more of a relationship than that, this is somebody’s life” said Sharps, who owns an HR firm.

With Richard’s job determined by a vote, Sharps questioned if severance would need to paid should she be out of a job. But Richards said stakeholders should not worry as she would foot the bill herself for any severance.

Voting takes place at city hall this Tuesday, May 11, from 8 a.m. to 2p.m. in boardroom M-1. A second voting day takes place May 13 from 2 p.m. to 8p.m.