Mayor and council assess first-year success
By Lethbridge Herald on October 24, 2022.
Herald photo by Al Beeber
Mayor Blaine Hyggen talks to media in council chambers Monday while councillor Ryan Parker listens. Council begins its second year in office today with an organizational meeting in council chambers at 1:30 p.m.Al Beeber – Lethbridge Herald
They’ve faced challenges and witnessed successes. Today, mayor Blaine Hyggen and city council begin their second year in office.
Council will have an organizational meeting today at 1:30 p.m. in chambers which will be followed by its regular meeting.
On Monday, the mayor and several councillors reflected on their first 365 days in office, a common theme being that council works together respectfully on the issues it deals with in public and behind closed doors.
A focus of council’s first term was the Gateway to Opportunity 2022 Action Plan, which “pledged an approach that clearly articulates priorities, creates further transparency, reports performance and builds community trust,” says the City in a release.
Acting mayor and first-term councillor Jenn Schmidt-Rempel called the first year “phenomenal,” noting that everything she campaigned on has made it into the strategic plan.
She said while civic government can always do more, “council has meshed very well together,” noting the same respect the public sees council members showing each other at meetings is the same respect when they meet in private.
Schmidt-Rempel said she’s watched council proceedings for more than 20 years and is “humbled and honoured” to have the opportunity to serve the city.
“It’s been phenomenal, it’s been great and I’ve learned a lot,” she said.
“It’s been a really good year.”
Veteran councillor Ryan Parker said much has changed in his 25 years on council and he’s glad normalcy is returning with the end of COVID restrictions, recalling how council members were sworn in last year behind partitions while wearing masks.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with some really good colleagues and members of the administration and I’ve worked with numerous premiers, numerous leaders in different capacity. But I can honestly tell you that city council has evolved as a unit,” he said.
He recalled when Blackberrys were first introduced to council and they thought that device was amazing.
“This is a real exciting year because as most people know, COVID changed everything. We couldn’t even come into City Hall…the things we took for granted as elected officials, it’s nice to kind of have some normalcy back in our lives here where we can meet with each other as colleagues or we can meet with our citizens.”
All councils work well together, Parker said, and while they may disagree on three per cent of issues, on about 97 per cent they are unanimous.
“It’s important that those three per cent things we listen to each other, respect one another but come to a consensus.”
He had praise for Hyggen, calling him a team captain who has “done an excellent job bringing us together.”
Hyggen told media “it’s been fantastic. What a great group to work with. We’ve heard so many different times that we may not agree on everything but the respect, the respect that we have for one another is so important.”
The mayor said it’s been important to build relationships, adding his colleagues are making the experience “so wonderful.”
One difference from being a councillor than a mayor is his schedule, he said. He had 452 scheduled appointments, excluding council meetings, and 229 community and media events he attended. He also had 215 other community and combined meetings and eight conferences.
“The time for me changing from councillor to mayor has definitely been how busy that schedule is. I guess the downfall for me is I really like to touch base with everybody who has contacted me and it’s just so difficult.”
First-time councillor Nick Paladino said the focus immediately is the budget and strategic plan. He said he thought council would involve a lot more planning and other items that came up to council but social issues turned out to be a big part of council’s work, those being a continued challenge for the city, and they won’t have an overnight fix, he added.
First-term councillor John Middleton-Hope said “it’s been a great year. I have been incredibly impressed with my colleagues and their knowledge and their commitment.”
He called his fellow councillors “very, very committed to trying to make this city a better place for everybody.”
Middleton-Hope said council has hit a couple of roadblocks and bumps in the road during its first term but it has also made progress “and that’s really important to focus on. We can always focus on the negative but let’s focus on the positive for a change in this city. I think that’s really, really important. I think we’ve done very, very well as a council. We’ve got some big challenges ahead in terms of the budget – nobody’s going to like the outcome of it but at the end of the day what we need is we need more funding from a variety of different levels to be able to provide enhanced services to our citizens in this city. And that’s what we’re working towards doing.”
Among highlights for council in the past 12 months are:
* Launching a land acknowledgement Oki and Welcome video.
* The Mayor’s Community Hockey Challenge to support local food banks.
* Lethbridge hosting the 2022 Tim Hortons Brier at the ENMAX Centre.
* Supporting a family physician marketing and recruitment campaign.
* Steps to coordinate with the Provincial to government to support the vulnerable population.
* Detailed analysis to possibly implement a Ward Electoral System by the 2025 municipal election.
* Receiving a Third Bridge River Crossing Review from Administration
* Continuation of CityLINK Transit system.
* Investment and grand re-opening of Lethbridge Airport.
36-35
This council has ignored the pleas of people to clean up their parks from the deviants who have taken over our parks and downtown and done nothing.
They have allowed criminal behavior to flourish so what type of grade do you really expect from us? Take off you blinders and quit selling out our city!
Now that you have given yourselves a collective pat on the back [ and are perhaps contemplating raises all round ] why not engage in an unadvertised fact finding mission and go for an unescorted walk around the civic centre, Galt Gardens and London Road area after dark so you can get a handle on what he general populations concern is about the civic “enhancements” our tax dollars have brought – you could even leave an OKI pin at the site of every discarded needle or bag of human waste you collect on your travels to show you care.
One year in, and already facing substantial tax increases. What have you done for the taxpayer? Lethbridge has historically had the highest taxes in Alberta. And now you are suggesting huge increases?