Will Medicine Hat Mayor Clark Get Any Answers Tonight? The Trash Panda Says - Unlikely
by Kelly Allard
The Mayor’s Ask (pg 125) is On The Agenda of Tonight’s Council Meeting at 6:30pm in Council Chambers
As Mayor Linnsie Clark pointed out, this is not a request to Council for permission to have this information. As mayor she is entitled to the information as is any member of the public who files a FOIPP (Freedom OF Information and Protection of Privacy) request.
Except apparently Community TV / The Trash Panda.
April 15 2022 Community TV /The Trash Panda filed a FOIPP April 15 2024 for the same information the mayor is requesting. Under FOIPP rules, they have 30 days to respond to the request. If there’s an extra fee, the clock stops until the fee is paid. Tom also filed a FOIPP for his own personal information – to wit
All communications between city staff, departments, internal or external where all or part of my name (Tom, Tommy, Thomas Arthur Fougere, or my business name Community TV /The Trash Panda, Luminos or any variation or misspelling.
Also for city council, mayor, council members communications or meeting minutes
May 2 2024 City Clerk Larry Randle sent a letter to the Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) requesting that the City of Medicine Hat (COMH) be allowed to disregard the request. This effectively stops the clock on the FOIPP request until the Commissioner has ruled on it.
reminder: Larry Randle worked with City Manager Ann Mitchell at the County of Lethbridge immediately before coming to the COMH
February 2023 Mitchell started as City Manager at COMH after serving as CAO of Lethbridge County.
June 2023 Mitchell , without authorization from Council in a an open meeting in violation of Administrative Bylaw 4662, changed who the City Clerk reported to. Instead of reporting to the City Solicitor, Mitchell had the City Clerk start reporting to herself.
June 2023 The City Clerk that had been hired August 2022 (who had moved from Grande Prairie which presumably would’ve involved a relocation allowance ) left the position; telling the Medicine Hat News that
“I’m also very grateful for the opportunity to work for the City of Medicine Hat (and) I wish Mayor Clark and council all the best and hope they continue to advocate for transparency in local government decisions that affect our community.”
July 2023 Larry Randle hired as City Clerk by Ann Mitchell after he served as interim CAO of Lethbridge County following Mitchell’s departure in February 2023. After Lethbridge County hired a permanent CAO, Randle returned to his position of Director of Community Services. There is no record of his departure in the minutes of Lethbridge County Council meetings.
NOW we are very INTERESTED in the requested information!
Mayor Clark wants this information discussed at an Open Council Meeting.
What is in the records that is so worrisome that they’re pulling out all the stops
to make sure it is NOT released to the public?
The first reason in City Clerk larry Randle’s letter to the OIPC accuses us of abusing the system.
“Repetitious and systematic in nature and processing the request would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the public body or amount to an abuse of the right to make requests.
The pattern of conduct in this case, as revealed in the social media campaign, is regular and deliberate. The resources required to respond to these requests, both within the FOIP unit and across the city administration, is overwhelming. The FOIP right of access process has been weaponized for a political interest but in such a way that has very little direct connections with the cause itself “amounting to an abuse of the right to make requests.”
We have filed exactly two FOIPP requests this year, three if you add my own request for my personal information. I asked for the same information as Tom.
All communication between city staff and departments, both internal and external, where all or part of my name, Kelly Allard, appears.
All communication between city staff and external agencies and/or people, where all or part of my name, Kelly Allard, appears.
All communication between any City Council Member(s) - including the mayor - and departments, both internal and external, where all or part of my name, Kelly Allard, appears.
All communication between any City Council Member(s) - including the mayor - and external agencies and/or people, where all or part of my name, Kelly Allard, appears.
All communication between any City Council Member(s) - including the mayor, both internal and external, where all or part of my name, Kelly Allard, appears.
All minutes of any meetings where all or part of my name, Kelly Allard, appears.
NB - I am asking for this information because it seems that Community TV /The Trash Panda has been singled out for special treatment; we have been denied access to press releases and press conferences because they do not consider us to be media.
They’re actually accusing us of weaponizing the FOIP process by filing two whole requests!
Yes, we are “crowdfunding” to pay for the FOIPP requests as we were told that we would billed at $27/hr to fulfil the request - we cannot afford that, hence the “crowdfunding”.
Yes, we suggested people could go FOIPP themselves. It is free and it is their right. The letter does not cite how many FOIPP requests were filed as a result of our suggestion. Unless they bring the receipts I am going to assume the number is zero.
The second reason calls our request
“frivolous or vexatious”.
“Because the requests campaign by the applicant has little bearing in content to any declared public interest or cause, the substance of the requests and information produced is necessarily of little consequence and importance”. (Commissioner decision February 5 2003)
The requests are vexatious because the state purpose is not to gain access o information but to harass the city continually and repeatedly with an attempt to bring it to a standstill. (Commissioner decision November 4 2005)”
I happened to look up both citations. Once again, I am bringing the receipts!
Commissioner decision February 5 2003
Commissioner decision November 4 2005
The citations appear to be for definitions only. In BOTH of the cited cases, the public bodies were denied an Authorization to Disregard and were instead instructed to complete the FOIP requests.
In fact these decisions reference Decision M-618 of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario which states:
“In my view, the concepts of "frivolous" or "vexatious" do not sit comfortably with a freedom of information regime which grants an open-ended or unqualified right of access to public information of which government institutions are only the stewards.
"Frivolous" is typically associated with matters that are trivial or without merit. Information that may be trivial from one person's perspective, however, may be of importance from another's. In this regard, I recall the example offered by an institution intervenor of a request to a fire department for fire fighters' shoe sizes over a certain period of time. Seemingly trivial or without merit, but important to the shoe manufacturer who wishes to create an inventory of fire fighters' shoes to market to fire departments.
"Vexatious" is usually taken to mean with intent to annoy, harass, embarrass, or cause discomfort. Government officials may often find individual requests for information bothersome or vexing in some fashion or another. This is not surprising given that freedom of information legislation is often used as a vehicle for subjecting institutions to public scrutiny. To deny a request because there is an element of vexation attendant upon it would mean that freedom of information could be frustrated by an institution's subjective view of the annoyance quotient of a particular request. This, I believe, was clearly not the Legislature's intent.”
The above decision was about a person who had filed over 136 requests within 24 months. The decision did not permit the public bodies to disregard all of the person’s requests, but limited them to 5 per year per public body and a limit of 5 total at any one time of all public bodies.
The City Clerk of the COMH filing a letter for Authorization to Disregard a FOIPP request is concerning. This is outrageous behaviour by senior city staff who appear to answer to nobody. Even Council (with the exception of Mayor Clark) is too chickenshit to go up against Queen Ann.
Did You Know?
A Council Member called “Councillor X” allegedly requested that a poster with the criticism of a Council Member be removed from a private business.
What can you do?
Show up at Council Meetings and demand that the information be released, if not to Community TV /The Trash Panda then to the Mayor.
Council gets nervous when they are being observed by many eyes. Given “Councillor X’s” alleged behaviour last week at McBride’s Bakery, it appears they are starting to crack.
Send them an e-mail. Here are the addresses, counterclockwise around the horseshoe.
City Clerk Larry Randle larran@medicinehat.ca
City Manager Ann Mitchell annmit@medicinehat.ca
You can contact the Ministry of Municipal Affairs
McIver, Ric, Honourable Minister of Municipal Affairs
Office of the Minister
Municipal Affairs
320 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
T5K 2B6
Phone: 780 427-3744
Fax: 780 422-9550
E-mail: minister.municipalaffairs@gov.ab.ca
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