Council Meeting Monday To Discuss “Personnel Matter” in Wake of City Mgr. Suspension

City manager Ann Mitchell (file photo)

City council will be holding a special council meeting this evening to discuss a personnel matter, the third such session in as many months and coming on the heels of a damning municipal inspection report.

Monday’s meeting is set to take place, in person, at City Hall starting at 5 pm.

The meeting follows special council meetings held on July 25 and 28, days following a municipal inspection report which found the city was being run in an “irregular, improper and improvident” manner.

The Friday July 25 meeting was held online and in camera but with the public provided a link to the virtual session to observe. However, council decided in the closed session of the meeting to seek legal advice on a personnel issue over the following weekend.

A snap July 28 special council meeting was called by Sunday evening.

The public wasn’t provided notice of that meeting until the day after it occurred, had no ability to attend the virtual session nor was a recording of it made and provided publicly as per city bylaw.

Despite that, city officials described the meeting as having an “open” session with meeting minutes revealing those portions of the session were not publicly accessible and that it included a 40-minute period prior to going into closed as well as two votes.

Those votes resulted in the suspension of city manager Ann Mitchell and announcing the launch of an investigation.

The Medicine Hat Owl, subsequently launched an access to information request seeking a copy of the recording of the open portions of the July 28 meeting as per the city’s own bylaw which requires it be posted publicly.

A reply to that request received on Sept. 16 stated, “following a comprehensive search of our records, no records responsive to your request were located.”

Mitchell is currently suspended with pay.