City Manager Receives Legal Fee Reimbursement, 3% Raise
Oct 7 2024 City of Medicine Hat Youtube Recording
Oct 7 2024 Council Meeting Youtube
Councillor Allison Knodel attended remotely, Councillor Cassi Hider was absent.
Two items were added to the agenda at the last minute by an unanimous vote.
Reimbursement of City Manager legal fees - moved by Councillor Andy McGrogan, seconded by Councillor Robert Dumanowski
City Manager compensation - moved by Councillor Shila Sharps, seconded by Knodel
Legal Fee Reimbursement Discussion starts at 2:01:10 of the video.
City Manager Ann Mitchell gets her legal fees reimbursed to the tune of $6520.50. We are not told what these legal fees were for. We do know that Mitchell hired a former coworker of People Services Director Karla Kochan to send a Cease and Desist Letter to Mayor Clark after the August 21 2023 Shitshow Showdown.
It took Council less than a minute to vote 6-2 in favour; Mayor Clark and Councillor Alison Van Dyke voted no.
City Manager Compensation Discussion starts at 2:02:00 of the video.
City Manager Mitchell received a 3% pay increase with Mayor Clark being the sole No vote.
Sharps told us that Council had a 3rd party come in and facilitate the annual City Manager evaluation since it was no secret that there had been some “relationship issues”. It is uncertain whether the annual evaluation came before the Judicial Review or the The Judicial review Decision Last year’s evaluation was on August 16 2023, the Judicial Review was heard on August 13 2024.
This rate is retroactive to Feb 26 2024 and is “in alignment with other senior leadership increases”. (It sounds like everyone else got a raise in February and the City Manager found out about it.)
City Manager Salary range is from $290687 - $417863 This means Mitchell’s raise is anywhere from $8720.61 - $12,5353.89
Councillor Darren Hirsch had said this is the first time he’s had this discussion in open council; he suggested an amendment to the CM contract. Sharps said everyone else got their increases in month 2, this is month 10 - says they can bring contract back to Council. Clark points out that they cannot unilaterally reopen the contract. Tells Sharps that maybe she should discuss with admin before Sharps drafts that motion. McGrogan said it was not a normal practice (to bring it open council), the contract was silent on the issue. Robins clarified that it was not normal to have to approve it as a motion Mitchell said it is fairly standard “in my experience it is done as a matter of procedure, more than happy to talk contract whenever”.
This Raises Questions
If pay raises increase are a standard clause, then why were they not a part of the contract? Do they not have examples of the previous City Manager contracts? How did this get missed, especially by the City Manager? This affected her personally.
What else is in that contract? What don’t we know about?
Are there other contracts that will have be revisited because they missed standard clauses?
