Mayor Burning Bridges With Council

More than 80 years later, US President Ronald Reagan noted that, “Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

In this age of hyper competitive "media", it is always challenging to launch a new venture to compete for eyeballs when it comes to what today we call "news".

The Medicine Hat mayor and council squabble has resulted in peak bad judgment as evidenced by a knee jerk reaction to once again invest millions of tax payer dollars and thousands of paid staff hours into a tax subsidized, financially uncertain solar farm.

So, where we may assume these are the MHPS members injured, who are these members? Are their injuries serious? And, how are they doing? The MHPS webpage suggests that “Given the ongoing nature of both the ASIRT and MHPS investigations no additional details will be provided”.

As voters we rightly expect preparation, but we certainly don’t expect politicians to personally control every aspect of every crisis. When life throws you a knuckleball, sometimes legging out a single is the best-case scenario. By and large, citizens are fair-minded in such circumstances. What voters can’t condone, however, is political cronyism.

I have been collecting military and police memorabilia for over 50 years. In early April, I decided to downsize my collection and consigned a vintage RCMP bandmasters tunic with sash, and an RCMP forage cap to Kirsten Boldt, owner of Infinity Antiques, here in Medicine Hat. Kirsten, in turn, put these items online to sell. The RCMP became aware of this sale and decided to get involved. On April 10, and on the instructions of the RCMP 'K' Division Sergeant Major, the local detachment commander attended Kirsten’s store and seized my RCMP items. When I learned what happened, I demanded their immediate return.

The Sentinel reached out to Catherine MacKenzie to find out in more detail about her mission to reinstate Mayor Clark to full duties and her reasons behind the petition do so. The responses are the position of Catherine MacKenzie and are her perspective on the situation occurring between council and Ms. Clark.

It is crucial to recognize that the city manager is the sole employee of the Council and, as such, is subject to employment laws. The circumstances surrounding the incident, where the chief elected official was nearly perceived to have engaged in conduct tantamount to constructive dismissal, raise significant legal implications.

With the government of Alberta introducing Bill 20, it raises the following question in municipal politics. If a councillor can be removed by order of cabinet, or a bylaw overturned because it does not jive with the ideology of the government, why be a municipal councillor at all?

For a group that wants the role of Mayor respected, Clark and her supporters are not very respectful of council as a whole. Clark could at anytime ask her supporters not to cheer her when she enters, or jeer other councilors, but she chooses not to lead and continues to antagonize council with her requests of information regarding spending and severance issues that she, as Mayor, signed off on. If that is not grandstanding then what is?