Mayor’s sanctions, “disproportionate with the conduct,” says judge

A Calgary judge is ordering all but one of the sanctions levelled against Hat Mayor Linnsie Clark by city councillors earlier this year be revoked or altered in a decision which landed with a bang Monday.  And the head of the petition group is now calling on Hatters to show up at the next council meeting to ensure elected officials abide by the decision.

Justice Rosemary Nation found city councillors, “have no sense of proportionality in crafting sanctions and have imposed sanctions that have no rationale with the breach of the code (of conduct bylaw).”

The only sanction Nation found as “reasonable” in relation to the exchange last year at a council meeting between the mayor and city manager Ann Mitchell is that Clark apologizes for her actions and a publication of a letter of reprimand.

While Nation found no fault with the process followed regarding the code of conduct complaint nor the Kingsgate report which was spawned by it, she was definitive in her condemnation of the sanctions.

Nation wrote in her decision the sanctions, “are overwhelmingly disproportionate to the breach of the code (of conduct) and no reasonable municipal council would have taken that decision.”

The King’s Bench justice also noted, “this court has found that levying ‘crushing or unfit sanctions’ can have the effect of undermining public confidence in an institution and its processes, ultimately defeating the purpose of their conduct enforcement system.”

The judge’s decision reverses council’s sanctions to remove the ability of the mayor to chair council and attend the administrative committee which sets the agenda of meetings. It also restores her wages after they were cut by half and gives her back the position of official spokesperson for the city.

While Nation found that limiting or putting in measures for contact between Clark and Mitchell is reasonable, she sent the sanction back to council to amend and allow the mayor access to administration areas and staff.

The decision came as a surprise after Nation indicated that a written decision might take up to Sept. 30 to release. But it comes on the heels of a two-week period in which the mayor and councillors conducted multiple interviews with local media outlets.

In a statement released late Monday, Clark said, “I am very pleased that our Superior Court restored my powers, duties and salary – finding that these sanctions were overwhelmingly disproportionate to the public questions I raised during our August 21, 2023 council meeting.”

She went on to state, “I believe that all parties involved, including myself, have learned valuable lessons from this experience.”

Clark is also calling on the provincial government to create an independent office of municipal integrity and ethics commissioner.

Kym Porter, the spokesperson for the group which petitioned city councillors to repeal the sanctions against the mayor, said the judicial decision was a vindication of the mayor as well as the group’s efforts.

“My initial reaction was delight for Linnsie and her family and that justice had been served,” said Porter of the judicial decision.

She’s calling on Hatters to show up and be seen at council’s next meeting on Sept. 3.

“We believe that is important,” said Porter. “It’s important that council, along with Linnsie as a member of council, see that people are still interested and are not just going to let this rest.”

Porter said those next steps for her petition group could involve, “asking for a public apology to the mayor for the harshness of the sanctions.”

She added the judicial decision was exactly what the nearly 3,000 people who signed the petition were saying in that the sanctions were too harsh.