Medicine Hat councillors preview motions on operating grant process, staff expenses

“I put a number of notices of motion, and I just find that it’s the best way to get action because then all of council will get to weigh in,” McGrogan told reporters after Monday’s council meeting.

“Usually, when you put a notice of motion on the table, what ends up being the direction to admin is quite different, and sometimes, and most times, much better.”

Notices of motion have previewed major items in the past, including McGrogan’s proposal last year to call for a municipal inspection of city hall and a notice from Sharps in January to resolve an outstanding sanction on Mayor Linnsie Clark.

“I find it brings the discussion into the open — it brings topical issues out in the open — where they should be,” McGrogan said.

The notices of motion give both elected representatives and city staff time to prepare for when a proposal formally comes to council for a decision.

Other motions typically originate from staff and are often based on council’s ongoing strategic plan, calendar decisions such as the city budget or various other city needs.

Those items work their way through levels of staff approvals and council committees before coming to council, meaning there’s more advance warning.

Notices by members of council give at least two weeks to prepare.

Three notices were given at Monday’s meeting.

Coun. Cassi Hider previewed a motion to create an operating grants application process for non-profits that want to ask the city for cash.

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 on Monday comes to council at its March 17 meeting in two weeks.

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

The city did provide a $1 million grant — split in half for 2023 and 2024 — in its previous budget. That marked the first time the city provided financial support for the air ambulance.

McGrogan, who has been active in bringing forward motion notices since last August, revealed a pair of separate proposals on Monday.

McGrogan’s first notice was 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.

The second notice was to direct city officials to publish senior staff expenses.

Those would include line item details such as business travel, meals and various other costs, McGrogan said.

“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.

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

by Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat councillors preview motions on operating grant process, staff expenses

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