File Photo/CHAT News

By Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat council cancels Monday meeting over ‘lack of agenda items’

Aug 19, 2024 | 12:30 PM

Medicine Hat city council has cancelled its Monday public meeting citing “a lack of agenda items”.

Administrative staff advised council that a public hearing over the off-site levy bylaw had to be postponed to Sept. 3 due to unavoidable circumstances, according to a statement released Friday by the city.

That left the only item of business remaining on the agenda the first reading of a bylaw, which was deemed not time sensitive, officials said.

Coun. Shila Sharps, who as deputy mayor represents council on the agenda review committee, told CHAT News she decided to scrap the meeting after realizing how short it would be.

The next council meeting is scheduled for Sept. 3. That meeting will now mark a resumption of the regular meetings after a summer break.

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Council will still gather at city hall for a closed meeting to discuss a “personnel matter”, according to a posted agenda.

The item is being kept private for “confidential evaluations”.

The cancellation comes just three days after lawyers for the city and Mayor Linnsie Clark argued in a Calgary court over the validity of sanctions placed on her by council earlier this year.

Political consultant Jim Groom, who called Tuesday’s judicial review hearing equivalent to a “schoolyard dispute”, said the cancellation is bad timing.

“The optics and timing is not good for a council whose members have already declared themselves dysfunctional,” Groom told CHAT News on Friday.

“The September meeting will be interesting.”

The city has not yet responded to a request for comment from CHAT News about the judicial review hearing and Clark’s subsequent comments on Thursday.