Changing City Hall Culture Part of Clark’s Bid for Re-election

Mayor Linnsie Clark rode a wave of discontented Hatters into office four years ago with a promise of changing how business would be done at city hall. But those turbulent waters which swept her into office also resulted in a city hall swamped with dissatisfaction and dysfunction.

The undertow of a council seeking to severely curtail her ability to swim against the current failed to pull her under, but Clark’s re-election bid comes weighed down with four years of internal strife.

Clark took issue with the municipal inspection report which found the city was being run in an “irregular, improper and improvident manner,” calling it, “just a bunch of gossip, anonymous gossip.”

She added the report had, “no credibility assessment, no findings of fact even. And if you read it in some cases the recommendation has very little to do with the justification for that recommendation.”

There were 68 recommendations coming out of that report which Clark notes city administration even recommended not proceed with some of them, “because it isn’t good governance.”

The report also painted an unflattering picture of how city hall was being run and while it had a negative critique of many aspects, it did single out Clark.

“The picture that was painted of me in that report – that I am cruel or some of the other nasty things that were said – does not paint an accurate picture of me,” Clark said.

She indicated she is a candidate which wants to bring the city into 2025 and realize the potential of the community while acknowledging there is a trust issue between council and the electorate.

Mayor Linnsie Clark announcing her judicial review of sanctions placed against her in March 2024. (file photo)

“As a council, we need to rebuild the trust of our citizens so we are able to innovate, take some risks so we can move forward,” Clark said.

Coming out of the last four years has given her the experience to find a new city manager with a focus on improving culture at city hall. And she wants to cast a wide net to find the right individual for the municipality.

“I do think having that piece of the puzzle will be important,” she said.

On the issue of Saamis Solar which the city purchased the rights to develop, Clark said, “acquiring an interest in this project is about protecting a strategic opportunity.”

She highlighted there’s few other places in the city which could host such a project, it’s being developed on contaminated land which the municipality would lease and all options are on the table for future development.

“Sometimes you just have to act when opportunities arise to protect them and we can still sell it, we can still partner with someone, we can still do a joint venture,” Clark said.

The future of decarbonization policy may still be fluid but she said there is demand from industry for renewable energy. And the city has the baseload natural gas production facilities to match up with the intermittent nature of solar and wind power.

Clark said she wasn’t in favour of a municipally controlled corporation taking over the control of the city’s energy division due to the expense but does agree some professional expertise would be a benefit.

“It wasn’t making sense to me,” said Clark who also noted the proposed private entity would take the profit generating assets but none of the liabilities.

Her preference would be to see the city garner more industry knowledge while establishing a rate review advisory board.

 On the issue of consultation with the community, specifically when it came to releasing the Transportation Master Plan, Clark stated that goes to the culture at city hall.

“We have to change our culture so we actually care what people are saying and understand that is an important success factor that we can tweak our services and delivery in a real-time manner because we are getting this feedback,” she said.

One way Clark said she’d like to avoid the backlash faced regarding the transportation plan is to have council set a strategic plan that is well-defined outlining exactly what is expected.

An issue which arose during the last council were concerns raised which were outside the city’s strategic plan.

“Administration communicated to us, whoa, what do you actually want us to be working on here? Because this is in your strategic plan and we can’t do all of it,” said Clark.

She added that in those situations, it was unclear what matters related to the strategic plan would be dropped in favour of pursing different concerns.

“Council either needs to stick to its strategic plan and measure it and make sure it’s being carried out or change it,” Clark said. “We can change our strategic plan at any time.”

When it comes to homelessness in Medicine Hat, Clark highlighted it’s the province’s responsibility to choose a shelter service provider, but the city has the ability to assist.

Clark sitting at the side of the council table following sanctions against her removing her as chair. (Photo Courtesy of CMH)

“Such as the incentives and process changes to allow people to develop accessory housing like a backyard suite, to incrementally increase the number of available houses, hopefully bringing down rental rates and providing more access to housing,” she said.

But there are people who just aren’t at the point in which they can be housed, Clark stated, while noting Medicine Hat Community Housing has been able to find homes for people.

On the issue of advocating for more resources for the city from the provincial and federal government to deal with issues such as homelessness, Clark alluded to the position of chief of staff whose job that was before council voted to terminate that role.

“That’s a piece we kind of lost. I feel strongly that for the next council, we need to build that back up,” she said.

When it comes to economic development, Clark once again noted the culture a city hall but noted the municipality is partnering with five other regional communities to take a collective approach.

“Business retention and expansion is really about asking what business is, talking to them, what are your pain points to try to resolve them,” said Clark. “Unfortunately, we did that already in 2019, it was an excellent effort and if I had my druthers, we would have kept going with that strategy.”

But she said the decision was made before her time on council not to pursue that direction and the changing approaches to the issue of how the city approaches economic development has been an impediment to consistency.

“It is a longer-term game and it’s about developing relationships with business and industry groups so they know we exist, what our competitive advantages are and they trust us,” said Clark.

 As for past economic growth strategies and plans over the years, Clark noted the big change from those to now is the regional approach the city is now taking with its neighbouring municipalities.

That and, “it’s just about sticking to the fundamentals. It doesn’t have to be flashy,” Clark said. “It’s not the case we haven’t seen new industry come here since 2008 but no one would know it because we don’t make a show of it enough.”

As for her vision if re-elected, Clark said she is committed to build a city, “through governance, through our strategic plan making Medicine Hat a city business can  trust, that our residents trust and that provides exceptional customer service.”