Town audit report shows attempts at political self-promotion during municipal election

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

 With the municipal election in the rearview mirror, the Town is taking a firm stance on how councillors communicate with the public and the media. On Nov. 10, Taber town council reviewed and approved the Town’s new communications plan, developed from a communications audit done by Catalyst Communications between the spring and fall of this year. The report found that at least one member of council crossed the line in an attempt to promote him/herself in the lead-up to the election.

 Communications Manager Meghan Brennan delivered the presentation to council, which included the audit findings and the new plan.

 Catalyst brought forward 45 recommendations for the Town and six were identified as ‘immediate’ priorities, with council having direct involvement in the following: 1. Develop a communications plan (complete). 2. Increase the department’s staffing level to two full-time employees in Budget 2026. 3. Maintain current communications support provided by the executive assistant and records clerk, reporting to the communications manager. 4. Expand communications manager position to explicitly include a leadership role in organizational issues and reputation management. 5. Cease council direction of Town communications operations, including day-to-day outputs and campaigns, to any and all capacities. 6. Include the communications manager in budget-setting for all areas of communications, engagement, crisis communications, and issues/reputation management.

 The previous communications plan expired in 2023 and Coun. Sorensen wondered if there was anything to learn from the lapse between plans. Brennan replied, “The main learning is that we are overtaxed and under-resourced for communications in the Town. While it’s not an excuse, it’s an understanding that because these plans take months to do and there’s only one person doing them, I didn’t have the capacity to do a brand new plan.”

 Brennan said the recommendation to move forward with adding staff would help, as would the new plan’s focus on strategy rather than tactics. She said the strategy will carry on past 2029 and put her department in a position to succeed without the need for rebuilding the plan over and over.

 Coun. Sparks said he read the audit report and found some very problematic insights in the section on governance. 

“There were comments made by this audit group that were very disturbing to me and very disappointing. It states here that there was a member of council that actually went over and above what their role is in things like this. Very disappointing that they used the communications process as a way of self-promotion. If this did happen, were there any ramifications towards the council member who tried this tactic?”

 “I would agree with you that if it is in the audit, it is something that the auditors found,” Brennan answered. “In regards to ramifications, I would not be able to speak to that. Unfortunately, that’s in a political realm that I’m not privy to.”

 The council conversation took a brief detour into discussion about communications procedures before Sparks steered it back to the findings of the audit.

 He addressed Brennan again, saying, “I’m sorry to put you on the spot. I hope council took the opportunity to read this document. I hate to keep going back to this, but this totally shocked me. One hundred per cent shocked me, that someone would request to review and approve media releases prior to their dissemination. This is craziness to me.”

 The Catalyst audit report specifically reads, “In conducting this Communications Audit, anecdotal reports were shared of members of Council, and particularly of one member, who has attempted to direct organizational communications. The perception around these actions includes blurred lines between municipal communications and political promotion.”

 The report references “a number of explicit requests by a member of council for personal appearances on official social media channels.” It said the optics of such manipulations have the potential for the Town to come across as promoting an individual politician or agenda — and that it undermines the neutrality and credibility of municipal communications.

 “Along those same lines, there are reports of media interviews taken by council without administration’s awareness,” the report added. The findings make apparent that Catalyst’s fifth recommendation – to “cease council direction of Town communications operations, including day-to-day outputs and campaigns, to any and all capacities” was directly tied to the relationship between a councillor and their attempts at self-promotion.

 “No one,” Sparks said emphatically, “should be coming to anyone in the communications sector in the Town of Taber to try to coerce or get any political advantage in any way, shape or form. It’s not right, and it should never happen. And I apologize if anyone from past council has put administration in any tight spot because of their self-promotion.”