Gas City Gaslighting of Medicine Hat Mayor Linnsie Clark

By Kelly Allard

Today Mayor Clark dropped some more documents on her Facebook page, an augmented version of the documents that she gave to Council ahead of the April 22 2024 Council meeting.

Background

Feb 20 2024, Mayor Clark sent an e-mail to City Clerk Larry Randle requesting an item be placed on the March 4 2024 Council Agenda as per the Procedure Bylaw

6.4 of Bylaw 4725 says

Any Member can add an item:

(a) to any Regular Meeting agenda by providing a Notice of Motion or Written Inquiry;

or

(b) to any Closed Meeting agenda by providing a Written Inquiry, to the City Clerk, in

writing,

no later than one (1) week prior to the date of the Meeting.

Despite following the bylaw, the item was NOT put on the March 4 Agenda.

Despite following the bylaw, the item was NOT put on the March 18 Agenda.

It WAS put on the April 8 Agenda, over a month after Mayor Clark requested the addition to the Agenda. However, Council saw fit to run out the clock before it could be addressed. It was pushed to the next meeting date of April 22; Council requested more information from the Mayor about her “request”.

April 22 2024 - The item was pushed to the next meeting date of May 6 as the documents requested of Mayor Clark by Council was not delivered until 6 minutes before the start of the meeting.

What was the Agenda item the Mayor had requested?

Mayor Clark wanted to know the following

1. For each of the years 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023:

• a. the number of City employees paid or reimbursed for living expenses;

• b. for each employee (by job title or position) paid or reimbursed for living expenses:

  i the duration for which they were paid or reimbursed for living expenses;

  ii the itemized living expenses for which they were paid or reimbursed;

  iii the amounts they were paid or reimbursed for living expenses on an itemized basis;

  iv. the employee’s position type (i.e., permanent part time, permanent full time, temporary, etc.).

• c. the total amount of living expenses paid out or reimbursed.

2. For each of the years 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023:

• a. the basic terms of all severance agreements, including the precise sums, the date of the severance agreements, and the job title or position of the individual severed. For your reference, please see County of Vermilion River #24 (Re), Order F2007-025 (oipc.ab.ca).

3. A detailed accounting of all funds reallocated by the City Manager in 2023, pursuant to Section 20 of the Administrative Organization Bylaw, Bylaw No. 4662, or otherwise.

{$565,000 is listed for FFD FM 2023 City Hall Security, Space & Furnishings, Fixtures and Equipment Upgrades - what was spent on

• Security (which equipment, staff, and specific room in City Hall)

• Space (which specific room at City Hall)

• Furnishings (what furnishings were purchased and specific room in City Hall)

• Fixtures (which fixtures and specific room in City Hall)

• equipment upgrades (which equipment and specific room in City Hall)}

4. Staff turnover statistics for each of the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, by month.

5. The City Manager’s 2023 itemized expenses and P-Card statements.

6. Each Managing Director’s 2023 itemized expenses and P-Card statements.

Today’s Documents- the gaslighting

According to today’s documents, the reasons given by Council and administration for refusing to provide this information include:

• Making the information public could cause personal and organizational reputational damage  (If all was aboveboard, then what’s the issue?)

• Making the information public has negative connotations for the organization regarding public perception (Again, if all was aboveboard, what’s the issue?)

• Gathering and providing the information is a waste of staff time (Who makes that determination?)

• The information is confidential (No, no it’s not. It can be provided in a redacted form.)

• Our auditors have not identified any indiscretion in relations to the information. (Oh yes they have - hot mike on closed audit committee meeting regarding P-Card use)

• Because some of the information is under the purview of the Chief Administrative Officer and is managed by bylaws, policies and procedures, it is purely administrative in nature and outside of council’s scope (NOW Queen Ann is concerned about following bylaws, policies and procedures?)

• This type of request is disrespectful and unprofessional (WTF?)

In my experience, when people supply more than one excuse to not do something, it means they’re loading you up with BS and hoping you will go away. The Trash Panda is not going anywhere.

April 15 2024, The Trash Panda submitted a FOIPP for the exact information listed above.

Update on the FOIPP status coming soon, it’s a bombshell!

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