Council Says No, Mitchell Says Go - Defying "The Will of Council"
By Kelly Allard
CAO Contingency Fund Allows City Manager Ann Mitchell To Defy The Will of Council
The July 2 2024 Regular Council Meeting was interesting to watch. City Manager (CM) Ann Mitchell seems to be confident wielding her power. It was reminiscent of the former CM Bob Nicolay’s response to Mayor Clark’s questions about why TIn Can Alley (Towne Square) went overbudget by 50% (about $1 million).
Background
The CAO Contingency Fund is currently budgeted at $1 million per year. The City Manager can spend it however they like, answering to nobody. It appears that they are also able to bypass the Procedure Bylaw, thereby avoiding the RFP process. This is not the first time this has happened.
Former City Manager Bob Nicolay only had $500,000 to spend each year. He spent $830,000 on offices for Invest Medicine Hat (IMH) in a building that the City did not own. The money was spent over 2 years and part of it was to be a “repayable loan”.
IMH - rebranded as Economic Development - has since moved out of those offices; the City wrote off hundreds of thousands of dollars of that “loan”.
I cannot find any RFP (Request For Proposal) issued for the work for the IMH offices.
Verbal Update at Council
At the July 2 2024 Council Meeting, we received a verbal update (transcript at bottom of article) about
Council Chambers and
Request to Address Council.
NB - Verbal Updates are SOP at committee meetings, I’ve never seen one at a Regular City Council meeting. Procedure BYLAW NO. 4725 does not prohibit Verbal Updates to Council but the standard practice is to have everything in writing in the Agenda Packet. For example, at the Nov 7 2022 Council meeting, City Manager Glenn Feltham included his introduction to budget deliberations in the Agenda Packet, pgs 32-33. The public does not have a chance to weigh in on a Verbal Update until it is a fait accompli.
City Manager (CM) Ann Mitchell had the Acting Managing Director of Corporate Services explain everything and then took questions.
Timestamps are from the July 2 2024 Council Meeting
1:12:30 Mayor Clark asked about cost, if this was a budgeted item, would there be a budget amendment etc.
CM Mitchell replied “It is part of the current budget but we will advise Council about that moving forward. I believe it's coming to admin committee Thursday of this week and then the information will come forward to council but it is part of the existing budget.
1:13:15 Mayor Clark said “our initial budget discussions that we had for our two-year budget initially was that we rejected upgrades to the chamber, so is this a separate line item or what what line item are we thinking?”
Mitchell replied “it's under the city manager contingency fund which is already a pre-approved budget item.”
Chamber Upgrades Originally Proposed for 2025
Mayor Clark said at the July 2 meeting that Council had voted against the Council Chamber Upgrades. I found a document that said the upgrades were originally set to happen in 2025.
Screenshots taken from Pgs 72-73 of Nov 7 2022 CC Agenda Packet.
The first pic shows the column titles. Shaded columns are 2023 and 2024. Second pic shows that Council Chamber upgrades were not scheduled until 2025.
The Will of Council
We hear a lot of talk about the Will of Council and how Council members are expected to abide by it. If they lose a vote, they lose. Council members are expected to accept the decision and speak no more about it.
Apparently that does not apply to the City Manager.
The City Manager is Council’s sole employee and is the only employee they can direct.
The Will of Council was
“We’re not approving the Council Chamber Upgrades”.
The Will of the City Manager was
“I have $1 million I can spend on whatever I want; I don’t have to answer to anybody.”
Pg 32 Capital Budget Municipal from 2023-2024 Budget Report.
No Council Chamber upgrades listed, but the Towne Square bathrooms do appear.
This document is interesting. Department Business Plan Update General Government –
City Manager & Managing Directors General Municipal Revenues
The document properties show it was created in February 2024
(It is possible it existed before in a different format).
On page 50 we see a budget line for $565,000 for City Hall Furnishings, Fixtures and Equipment (FF&E)
NO RFPS Issued For City Hall Work
Once again, I have not found a RFP for the work at City Hall. I did search for more than just those two terms.
This appears to be in violation of Procurement Policy 0173 for the following reasons.
The work does not appear to be on the Exempt Expenditures List.
The dollar amount is in excess of the threshold that requires an RFP to be issued.
CAO Contingency Fund needs strings applied
We expect that our top administrator will use the million dollar CAO Contingency Fund wisely, that they will be diligent stewards of the public purse. We expect that they will abide by the procurement process when possible. There’s no reason why the Chamber Upgrades could not have gone to an RFP. This was not an emergency, it was not even urgent.
Capital Spending typically comes with a Briefing Note or an explanation of why it is necessary/desired and how it will benefit the City/ residents/ employees. We have been given very few details on the work being done at City Hall and only after the decisions /alterations have already been made.
As stated before, this is not the first time this has happened with the CAO Contingency Fund. Council also has a Contingency Fund but they must vote on it being used. The CM gets $1 million to spend without requiring any input from anybody - Council has in effect created a monarchy.
There are lots of things Queen Ann could have done with the $1 million CAO Contingency Fund
Public Toilets at Tin Can Alley (Towne Square) comes to mind. They were budgeted for $540,000 in 2023 - Council voted against it.
The Heron Fountain designed by James Marshall at Riverside Veterans Memorial Park is another project that could use some funds. The Heron Fountain is NOT on the Capital Project Spending List of the current city budget. The park is literally across the street from City Hall. It could be a shining jewel in our downtown but instead it is an eyesore.
“Heron Fountain: When it was decided to beautify this idyllic downtown park, James was asked for input on a water feature. His idea was so well-received, it became a focal point to those who entered the park, with the mural of two herons among branches is one of Marshall’s most intricate works.“ source - Tourism Medicine Hat
When the City Manager can defy the Will of Council by using the CAO Contingency Fund for projects that Council votes against, that sends a message. It tells the employees that the City Manager is a law unto themselves, that they are above the rules.
Council needs to send a message right back that THEY are the decision makers, that the City Manager is not permitted to do an end run around the Will of Council.
Medicine Hat is NOT a Monarchy
The residents did not vote for Council Members to appoint a monarch.
The residents voted for Council Members to make decisions and to oversee their sole employee, to ensure that their sole employee was following their directions.
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Verbal Update re chambers Transcript july 2 2024
1:08:50 “...This work to the council chambers was requested in response to the Safety and Security concerns submitted by staff in delineating Council and staff spaces versus public areas, a desire to improve meeting experience by improving sight lines and modernizing the appearance of the space.
As part of the identified work in the service requests reconfiguring of elements of council chambers have been partially completed with further work scheduled during the Council break this summer.
To date work within the council chambers has been completed on various items including;
repositioning the managing director desks to improve Council and staff sight lines on the chamber floor (reasonable)
repositioning the current presentation podium to improve Council and staff sight lines on the chamber floor (reasonable)
repositioning of the media desks from the first row gallery to the top row (nobody asked us - it is a lousy viewpoint as far away from council as possible)
repositioning of communication staff to the chamber floor (they’re stuck in a corner, they can only see part of the horseshoe)
Scheduled work includes
addition of public presentation podium in the first row Gallery area (so they can then be “lording down over council”?)
replacement of Staff presentation podium (to where?)
repositioning of cabling to accommodate installation of permanent power supply at relocated media desk location (the original location had audio and video hookups too)
modification of blackout curtains and application of window treatment to exterior windows (what kind of window treatment?)
update of card access control system on council chambers perimeter doors (reasonable)
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