No Communication Policy, No Problem - The Peasants Can Wait
By Kelly Allard
Last year, the City Of Medicine Hat limited communication with not only Community TV /The Trash Panda but also a resident by the name of Nicole Frey.
I do not personally agree with all of Ms Frey’s opinions but she does make some good points and has brought a number of issues to light.
On Nov 24 2023 City Manager (CM) Ann Mitchell sent a letter to Ms Frey saying that they were limiting communication with her until they developed their Respect for People and Property policy.
257 days
36 weeks 5 days
8 -1/2 months
What are they waiting for? A pregnancy would’ve practically produced an entire human by now.
Timeline
Nov 14 2023 Frey sent a letter to Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver requesting that the Ministry investigate the City of Medicine Hat. CM Mitchell’s response was to order a legal review of that letter using the CAO Contingency Fund hiring an outside legal firm.
Nov 15 2023 Articles in the local news regarding the letter, CM Mitchell gives a statement.
Nov 22 2023 Email chain
9:20 am Frey sent an e-mail to Council wanting a public correction in regards to a recent news article in which CM Mitchell gave a response to the letter to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
9:25am CM Mitchell sent an email which said
”This morning at Administration Committee we will discuss next steps and I will advise council.”
10:42 am CM Mitchell emails Council saying “We will be drafting an administrative letter advising her that we will be limiting communication until our Respect for People and Property Policy has been developed. This is necessary for the health and well being of our staff.
11:17 am City Solicitor Ben Bullock said:
”One additional point Ann. As discussed, the legal fees will be paid from the City Manager Contingency fund.”
NB - The above named fund is called the CAO Capital Contingency Fund. As far as I know, legal fees are not a capital expense.
During the 2023-24 Budget debates Council members asked questions, one of them was about the CAO Capital Contingency Fund. The CAO is given $1 million per year for this purpose. See pg 58 of the 2023-24 Budget Report
Question - What if any parameters apply to this? What can it be spent on? Why is it a Capital Expense?
Answer - It is intended to allow the CAO to approve smaller projects as they arise and / reallocate to other projects as appropriate.
Item 20 on pg 5 of Administrative Organization Bylaw 4662 states:
”The City Manager may re-allocate City capital and operating funds on an inter- divisional or inter-departmental basis if the City Manager considers it advisable to do so to maintain the operations and affairs of the City within approved budget limits.”
Nov 24 2023 City Manager Ann Mitchell put Frey on a communications protocol telling her they would still communicate when it came to the provision of city services but other inquiries would go unanswered. They gave her no timeline, no remedy, no avenue for appeal. It was a “temporary” measure until they developed a policy.
Nov 27 2023 Frey sent an e-mail to City Clerk Larry Randle asking about the policy being used to limit communications with her; she also asked for a single point of contact with the City. There were unanswered questions from before Nov 24 2023, Frey wanted to know who was going to answer them. Randle did not want to overstep his authority so he asked his supervisor - CM Mitchell. Randle passed along the message from Mitchell which pretty much said
“Read the letter.”
Nov 28 2023 City Clerk Larry Randle forwards emails to Ann Mitchell. He offers to help however he can, even offering to meet with Frey in person.
59 days after the letter, Frey filed a complaint with the Alberta Ombudsman.
Mar 5 2024 The Ombudsman said in their decision in regards to the communication protocol -
“Duty of Fairness, Participation Rights and Legitimate Expectation – You raised concerns that it is unfair that the City did not allow you to appeal the protocol and has not set a timeframe in which it will review its decision. You also complained that there is not a consistent process in place regarding communication restrictions.
I recognize your concerns and agree that communication protocols should be consistent and have set timeframes in which they will be reviewed.
That said, I found that the City explained this restriction is temporary pending the creation of the policy it is actively working on. If the City completes the policy and extends or issues further restrictions and you believe the process was not administratively fair, you can write again to our office. We may request the policy at that time, assess how the City implemented it, and review any decisions for administrative fairness.
Reasonable – I found the City’s decision to implement communication restrictions to be reasonable. It provided reasons for the current restrictions and explained it is in the process of writing a policy to ensure consistent decision-making.
While the City will not respond to your communication about certain matters, it confirmed you still have access to municipal services and support.”
The Alberta Ombudsman is powerless to find the City in violation of a policy that does not exist. The fact that the City does not have a policy is also not something the Ombudsman can do anything about.
The City can even decide to not answer the questions if they think they are being asked in a rude or an accusatory way. Councillor Sharps made it clear in her last email to me when she said
”Perhaps reaching out and asking questions with some inquisition and integrity instead of making accusations would be beneficial. “
Here’s something the Medicine Hat Monarchy might have missed.
When government is being held to account,
they do not get to dictate how questions are asked.
Why is it Taking So Long to Develop a Policy?
It’s not like they need to reinvent the wheel. I found the link below in about 5 seconds. The City could easily have adopted something like this while they created their own.
Policy for Respectful Communications and Behaviour - CCTS
Recent Activity
Thursday August 1 2024, I sent this e-mail to City Manager Ann Mitchell. I gave her until Friday at 5pm to respond. Six days later, I have still heard nothing.
“Greetings;
I have questions.
Nov 24 2023, you sent a letter to City Resident Nicole Frey stating
“This letter is to inform you that after careful consideration, the City of Medicine Hat has made the decision to temporarily limit communication with you effective November 27 2023. This decision will remain in place while the City develops a policy related to the following that was approved by City Council at the November 20 2023 meeting.
“...that Administration be directed to draft a policy that ensures a safe workplace consistent with the City’s obligation under applicable Occupational Health and Safety legislation by prohibiting violence, harassment, and discrimination directed at employees by members of the public, or by an employee towards a member of the public, and which includes a process that allows for restrictions on communication from members of the public toward members of Council and/or City Staff, where warranted, and further, that administration bring this policy back through the Administrative and Legislative Review Committee prior to coming back to council for review.
Question Did Frey receive any warning before communications were stopped? If so, what was the warning and when?
Question Did the City give Frey any chance to remedy the situation? If so, what were the proposed remedies?
Question Did the City give Frey any guidelines such as a limit of e-mails or a limit of phone calls/day? If so, what were the guidelines?
Question What is the current City policy for limiting communication with individual residents and where can it be found?
Question Did the City give Frey a timeline as to when they would restart communications with her? If so, what was the timeline?
It has been 249 days since the City limited communication with Ms Frey.
Question What is your definition of temporary?
Question When will the above named policy be presented to Council?
My deadline is Friday August 2 2024 at 5:00pm.”
the queen has spoken
Not having a definition of respectful communication means that the City can refuse to answer any and all questions they don’t like. After all, CM Mitchell said at the Shitshow Showdown
“I think this is highly inappropriate and I’d like to stop this discussion right now.”
Not having an appeal process is unheard of in this day and age; it comes across as
“The Queen Has Spoken”
I looked on the City’s website for a definition of respectful communication. On the City’s Contact Us page, I found nothing that says anything about respectful communication. I found nothing on their Report a Problem page either. On the Contact Mayor and Council page, I found the following which is not very useful..
Top of form
“Engaging in respectful conversation is crucial to promoting productive dialogue and responsiveness. Please keep the tone civil.”
Bottom of form
“The City of Medicine Hat is committed to serving you better and supports a safe and respectful workplace. Abusive behaviour towards staff or any member of the public will not be tolerated.”
Here is the City’s Respectful Workplace Policy 8047 - surely they could have taken a page or two (or three) to adopt as a policy in dealing with the public. Instead they have hemmed and hawed - after all they do not have to abide by a policy that does not exist.
It is outrageous that the City Manager is permitted to dictate who she will speak to or not in the performance of her duties.
It is outrageous that the City Manager is permitted to silence a resident by effectively saying “Shush until we get a policy in place” and then drag it out for over 8 -1/2 months.
It is outrageous that city staff and a council member would use official communication channels to act unprofessionally in regards to the Nov 24 2023 letter sent to Nicole Frey.
It is outrageous that Director of Human Resources Karla Kochan would use an official communication channel to say
“Boom!!! Great letter!”
(This one surprised me, I thought HR people were supposed to be kind and understanding. I can only imagine what they are saying about me.)
It is outrageous that Councillor Sharps would use an official communication channel to say
“would it be wrong to post it before she did LOL she just posted a whole piece on me I guess I just got a call from her reporter in Calgary, so I wanted to speak to me”
Save the cattiness
for the water cooler
#yxh #medicinehat #annmitchell #nicolefrey #comtv #communitytv #thetrashpanda #respectfulworkplace #communcation #freepress #media #professional #karlakochan #humanresources #citymanager
