Screenshot - City of Medicine Hat website

There has been some misinformation about this, here are the facts.

As always, I bring the receipts.

I wrote about how the Recall Petition process works on Sept 11 2023

Background

Nicole Frey and her husband AJ are the founders of Rad Websites and the Animal Food Bank which has three locations in three provinces - British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba. After not being satisfied with City Council’s July 4 decision to look at rate relief in regards to the high electricity rates in Medicine Hat Alberta by the end of 2023, they along with Sounantha Boss (Thai Orchid Room) organized a rally for Tuesday August 29 2023.
(Medicine Hat owns their own power generation and can set their own rates. In 2009 they passed Bylaw 3690 which set the standard for using Market Rates.)

The rally had to be moved to a larger location because of the public interest. About 400 members of the public showed up. Mayor Linnsie Clark was there to answer questions as were the following council members

Cassi Hider

Darren Hirsch (he had to leave early to go to his day job)

Andy McGrogan

This impromptu Town Hall went on for about 2 hours, Community TV /The Trash Panda was there, video below.

Public Angered About Energy Rates

Council had held a Special City Council Meeting the day before on Monday Aug 28 2023 to direct staff to come up with immediate cost relief options to be presented at the Sept 5 City Council meeting. On Wednesday Aug 30 2023 Council held another Special Council Meeting in camera to discuss the relief options to be presented at the Sep 5 2023 meeting. Sept 5 2023 Agenda Packet

Timeline

Aug 30 2023 Facebook page Medicine Hat Citizens For a Better Medicine Hat is created. They say “This group is a centralized spot for the posting and discussion of issues and concerns around the City of Medicine Hat, Council, the Mayor and the administration. Rude and aggressive comments will not be permitted. Be kind. Speak respectfully. Thank you for participating.”
Sept 8 2023 GoFundMe campaign (GFM) started by Nicole Frey (NF) for “Recall Petition & FOIP Costs” NF states ” This is not a witch hunt. I'm not "going after" the Mayor. And I don't disagree that we should be attempting to recall some of the councilors too. However, we must start somewhere, and I do believe this recall petition for the Mayor is the best place to start.”

Screenshot 2023-10-23 at 07-29-48 Recall Petition & FOIP Costs organized by Nicole Frey.png

Screenshot 2023-10-23 at 07-31-23 Recall Petition & FOIP Costs organized by Nicole Frey.png

Screenshot 2023-10-23 at 07-30-21 Recall Petition & FOIP Costs organized by Nicole Frey.png

Screenshot 2023-10-23 at 07-31-46 Recall Petition & FOIP Costs organized by Nicole Frey.png

Week of Sept 16 2023 GiveSendGo campaign (GSG) started, same lengthy write-up as the GFM campaign.

Week of Sept 16 2023 First Recall Petition presented to the City Manager (CM) was rejected due to missing information. NF says they will hold off until they hear what the options are.

”…the concern is we will be wasting your money if they resolve the rate issues and people are no longer enraged enough to be vocal and sign and help get signatures because this recall petition is no small undertaking. We wanted to see what the bylaw draft said for rates.”

(Source - Give Send Go campaign)

Sept 18 2023 GSG campaign is at $540

Oct 5 2023 Facebook Page Medicine Hat Utility Ratepayers Association, a private group. An internet search found only the Facebook page. The provincial database was only current to September.

Oct 11 2023 Former mayor Ted Clugston pops up on the TV news for the first time since he lost the election to Mayor Linnsie Clark, says he can solve the utility rate problem in ONE meeting. He calls the current council a “train wreck”.

NB – the decision to run COMCO like a business was a decision of Council in 2009, Clugston was not mayor then. Clugston was vice chair of the Energy Committee, (Chair was John Hamill), they were responsible for bringing this plan to Council. Source 2009 City of Medicine Hat Annual Report

Dec 7 2009 City Council Meeting Minutes First Reading of Bylaw 3960 the Electric Utility Bylaw

Dec 21 2009 City Council Meeting Minutes Second and Third Reading of Bylaw 3960 the Electric Utility Bylaw

Clugston was mayor for 8 years since then, he had ample time to fix it.

Oct 11 2023 Wednesday The Recall Petition is presented a 2nd time to the CM, this time it is accepted. NF was hoping the mayor “would do the right thing and resign” but since she didn’t they would go ahead with the petition. Source, Give Send Go Campaign, see screenshots.

They’re also adding that they want to do an inspection petition – that would be for the province to come in and investigate the operations of the municipality.

“We are also pursuing a petition for an inspection per section 571 of the Municipal Act. This has a lesser burden of signatures of 20% of the voting population. They city was unable to provide information on how this works, and so I've got a message into the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.”

Screenshot 2023-10-22 at 11-14-48 Click here to Give now to Supporting MH Mayor Recall Expenses by Pamela Lehr.png

Screenshot 2023-10-22 at 11-15-02 Click here to Give now to Supporting MH Mayor Recall Expenses by Pamela Lehr.png

(Inspection Petitions are under provincial jurisdiction, section 571 of the MGA.)

Oct 12 2023 Thursday The Recall Petition is posted on the City Website.

The clock starts ticking; they have 60 days to collect over 25,300 signatures to the CM. They need to collect an average of 423 signatures /day to achieve their goal.

People start asking where they can sign the petition. No petition signature pages have been created, nor do they have signing locations set up. They say check the website (which did not did not yet exist, NF and her husband AJ run a business that creates websites, this is what they do. They had a month to get this done since their first attempt. They are only taking new customers by referral, they are busy working on other things)

Screenshot 2023-10-22 at 18-39-35 Rad Websites & Marketing - Best Ecommerce Agency in Canada.png

Screenshot 2023-10-22 at 18-38-19 Best SEO in Canada - AJ Frey - I want to be on page one.png

Oct 15 2023 Sunday Volunteer Recruitment Meeting held at Thai Orchid Room (Again, they had a month to recruit)
Oct 16 2023 Monday Website was finally launched. The location map failed after 100 visits, as they did not pay for access. It was remedied the next day. They start collecting signatures and donations at City Hall before the City Council meeting.

Screenshots taken from FB Page.

Screenshot 2023-10-23 at 08-07-58 Facebook.png

Screenshot 2023-10-23 at 08-08-16 Facebook.png

Oct 18 2023 Wednesday Estimated signatures as listed on the website are at 983, a new donation on GSG increases amount raised by $25 to $565.

Oct 19 2023 Thursday $500 donated by one person to the GSG, total raised is now $1065

Oct 20 2023 Friday Repeated requests for estimate of signatures was referred to the website. The number stands firm at 983.

Oct 21 2023 Saturday Update on GSG says they are down to their last $10 in Recall Petition funds. “I wanted to give everyone an update on donations vs expenses so far. We have ten dollars left in our fund and have copies of the receipts as well :) Transparency is very important to me and us.”

Screenshot 2023-10-22 at 11-13-39 Click here to Give now to Supporting MH Mayor Recall Expenses by Pamela Lehr.png

Screenshot 2023-10-22 at 11-13-47 Click here to Give now to Supporting MH Mayor Recall Expenses by Pamela Lehr.png

Oct 22 2023 Sunday They have 7 signing locations set up, one is a private residence. They will also bring the petition to your home upon request. The estimated signatures on the website still says 983 – at this point they should have over 4200 signatures to achieve the needed average of 422/day.

Oct 23 Monday The calendar of signing events shows nothing listed for this week. Again the estimated signatures on the website still stands at 983. If this is true they will have to collect 24,370 signatures in the 48 days they have left (507 per day).

If the people are willing to sign then it won’t take long.

Let’s say it takes a minute for it to be signed and witnessed. If they have to explain why they want people to sign, then add another 2 minutes. If people are going door to door, then it will take at least 5 minutes/signature. ( I won’t even get started on how long it will take to bring the petition to someone on request.) I’ve been accused of being negative because of the numbers I posted. I replied “To overcome an obstacle, one must understand the obstacle. I’m a math nerd, this is my thing.”

What happens next?

Dec 11 2023 Deadline to present 25,353 signatures to the City Manager. (If they use the samples shown above, this will amount to over 2500 pieces of paper.)

Jan 25 2024 Deadline for City Manager to verify petition sufficiency. It must be presented to council at the earliest date after it is deemed sufficient.

Feb 5 2024 Next City Council meeting date. The mayor would be removed from office, the other councillors would have to take on the mayoral duties on a rotating basis.

May 5 2024 Sunday Deadline for Election Day, 17 months before the next election.

Oct 20 2025 Monday Next Civic Election

In the meantime Medicine Hat would have to deal with an election and possibly a new mayor at the end of it with all of the required adjustment that follows. Even if a former mayor is elected, he (Mayor Clark is the first female mayor) would be working with a lot of brand new people. They would have less than 18 months to form a cohesive unit with council and then we would be right into another election.

#yxh #medicinehat #comtv #communityTV #thetrashpanda #mayoralrecallpetition #radwebsites #animalfoodbank #NicoleFrey #AJFrey

Mayoral Recall Petition Update

Background

Timeline

What happens next?

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