Fully Baked Hot Takes - Opinion - McBride's Bakery
McBride’s Bakery has been writing some Facebook Posts about the Municipal Mutiny. The Trash Panda thinks they should be shared here. We also think their baked goods should be shared with everybody, especially the lemon squares!
Unabridged. Originally posted June 24 2024 on Facebook
I was talking with three women.
They’ve known me for a long time, and I felt safe asking them for an indulgence.
“Could I use you guys for 5 or 10 minutes as a focus group on local politics?”
They all immediately replied with something like “I don’t know anything / I’m not following it”
“That’s fine,” I said, because the first question is simply “How much do you know about the current troubles at City Hall?”
“On a scale of 1 to 5, I’m like a 1.”
“I’m a zero.”
“Maybe a 1 or a zero.”
“No problem. That’s about what I expected.” I said. “Next question: do you even know that there is some kind of conflict going on between the Mayor and the rest of Council right now?”
“Oh, yeah” they said. They knew there’s a conflict, they just didn’t know anything about it.
“Great,” I said. “So you know there’s a problem, but you don’t know what’s going on. Is that because it’s too complicated, or you just don’t care, or it’s too emotional, or it’s too difficult to become informed, or what? I mean, WHY don’t you know?”
They had lots of answers:
“They’re just keeping everything secret. It’s all happening behind the scenes.”
“I don’t believe any of them.”
“I think we should sack them all and have a new election.”
“It’s all just too ridiculous. Where do you start?”
“She’s not going to be able to get anything done anyway.”
“I’m sick of politicians. Everything’s toxic. They’re making it so no one decent would ever want to run for office.”
“When’s the next election?”
“All those reactions are completely reasonable,” I said. “Last question: I know you haven’t gotten into the details, but do you have any kind of gut feeling that one or the other side is right, or are they both about equal?”
“Oh, she’s getting shafted.”
“Shafted.”
“Totally shafted.”
(pause)
“She might deserve it, though. We don’t know. Too many secrets.”
“Excellent. Thank you all for sharing. I’m sorry if I triggered anyone with any of those questions.”
***
I have had several conversations lately with nice people who say “I heard something’s happening with city council but I didn’t follow it and now I don’t know squat. Can you tell me what’s going on?”
If this sounds like you, and you want my answer, then this 850 word, 3 minute piece is for you.
Once upon a time…
In 2021 Medicine Hat had an election. This was the result.
Clark 13,151 votes
(Clugston 4,639)
Robins 8,113
McGrogan 8,095
Knodel 8,083
Dumanowski 7,737
Van Dyke 7,225
Hider 6,747
Sharps 5,901
Hirsch 5,283
Clark’s campaign was clear on a few things: Clark didn’t think decisions were being made the right way. She thought too many big decisions were being made out-of-sight.
Clark also favored a different growth model, one which favored improving infrastructure and services within neighborhoods, growing the city inward rather than outward. I agreed with these views and supported Clark’s campaign.
Fast forward two years to the Aug 21, 2023 Council meeting. It’s on YouTube. The city manager (Mitchell) has carried out a large-scale reorganization and is asking Council to retroactively approve it. Hirsh gives his full approval. Dumanowski gives his full approval. Knodel gives a cautious endorsement. Robins expresses some empathy for those who lost their jobs, and lists a few metrics she wishes Mitchell would have prepared. She offers neither approval nor disapproval.
Clark steps up next, (at around 1hr50min, if you want to have a look). It’s a few minutes of head-butting, no doubt about it. Mitchell is admitting and taking responsibility for not doing the reorganization properly; she knows something this big can only happen out in the open in a proper council meeting. Nonetheless she is claiming she told Council about it in private meetings and got their approval and did it anyway, and now the thing to do is for Council to just approve it.
Clark isn’t letting it go that easily. Clark is like “Yes you DID talk with some of us about it before, but you did NOT get backdoor approval for this, and you know that something like this can only be approved by Council in an open public meeting; and furthermore this reorganization that you have already carried out might not even be legal and if anyone challenges this, we might have to reverse it. And it’s your job to know all this and follow these rules and laws. Why didn’t that happen?”
At this point Sharps loses it. She is furious about what Clark is doing and demands that she stop. Mitchell refuses to continue. Robins, Hider and McGrogan scuttle about to force an immediate vote on the reorganization. Clark votes No, every other council member votes YES. The reorganization passes.
Within a day or two Sharps makes a formal complaint against the Mayor under Code of Conduct rules. An outside law firm is hired to watch the video and make a decision. This will take many months, and effectively puts the issue in the deep freeze all winter….
….In late February of this year the Kingsgate report is returned to Council, who keeps it secret for a few weeks, finally letting us see a redacted version. Bottom line: the report finds that Clark violated the Code of Conduct.
So that’s the binary guilty or not guilty decision: Clark violated the Code of Conduct against Mitchell at that council meeting. So far, so good. The system is working.
Next comes sentencing, and this is where the scandal occurs. Seven members of Council, in the dark of night, skulked into a meeting room in the deepest bowels of City Hall, and barred the door behind them. There they burned offerings and thrust long needles into cloth dolls of the Mayor. Over the next three hours, the dire wraiths formed a deal, and a pact. The deal was that the Mayor would be put in chains, and eventually left for dead. This spell has come to be known as The Sanctions:
1. Publication of a letter of reprimand and request for apology, in the form read out by the acting mayor on behalf of council.
2. Suspension of Mayor Clark’s presiding duties under section 154 of the Municipal Government Act;
3. Mayor Clark will no longer be the official spokesperson for council.
4. Mayor Clark is prohibited from entering the administration area of City Hall, and outside of council meetings will not have any direct contact with city staff other than the city manager, which will be on the following basis:
A) Mayor Clark may only communicate with the city manager via email that must be copied to all of Council; and
B) If the city manager agrees to meet with Mayor Clark in-person, such a meeting must be in the presence of another member of Council.
5. Mayor Clark will no longer attend meetings of the Administration Committee.
6. Corresponding to the foregoing reductions in Mayor Clark’s duties, her salary will be reduced by 50 per cent effective from the date of this motion.
Then, the Pact was formed a week later when, under a waning gibbous, the Seven conspirators each pricked a finger and pressed their bloody mark onto an Oath of Secrecy, and then, ironically, sent it to the press. The Oath stated that the Seven would not reveal the reasons for their attack on the Mayor, and if we didn’t like it, there was an election coming in a year and a half.
Now you know what happened. If anyone (particularly a council member) wishes to dispute my version, I would certainly be satisfied to hear the simple truth
