Feltham looks to instill civic pride during interim role
When Glen Feltham arrived in Medicine Hat, the interim city manager made a point of staying at a variety hotels this spring before more permanent accommodations could be arranged.
That was to acclimatize himself to the city and included aging establishments on the Trans-Canada Highway.
“Great rooms, nothing from what you’d think from looking at the outside,” he told the News in a recent interview.
“I think that is Albertans’ view of Medicine Hat — largely it is what they see from the highway. That’s what it is, but it doesn’t show all the really wonderful things about living here.
“Hatters, I’m not sure they ask themselves often enough, ‘What do I love about
Medicine Hat?’”
Feltham, 62, is charged with the regular duties of a top municipal administrator, but with a focus on helping the corporation find its next permanent city manager while at the same time developing a long-term plan to reinvigorate the local economy and transform its budget.
Feltham took over from former city chief administrator Merete Heggelund, who was pressed into service on a three-month interim contract after former city manager Bob Nicolay left the post suddenly to retire in February.
Feltham specializes in transformational change — a PhD in accounting, he was writing a book on the subject when he accepted the position in Medicine Hat — following a career in top academic administration.
It is expected a permanent city manager will be hired later this year with the task of implementing the next budget as the city also focuses on major economic redevelopment and an industrial attraction strategy.
Among council’s other key priorities are a development plan, an environmental roadmap, implementing a parks plan and rebalancing investment priorities between new development and existing neighbourhoods.
“If you don’t know the space where you want to be, you’ll never get there,” he said, noting his own management style has been to set clear targets.
“A large part of success is clarity of vision and the rigour with which you drive toward it.”
Feltham spent eight years as president of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, during which time NAIT expanded its degree programs to become a “polytechnique” institute, then retired, but joined Grande Prairie Regional College while it sought its next fulltime leader.
“I got to go in and work with people to develop a common vision, then step away and cheer from the sidelines,” said Feltham, who sees his work in the Hat in a similar light.
“This is a city in transition, and there’s the opportunity to come and work with some outstanding people ... there’s a notion about having an outside set of eyes, and I hope to work with council to find that next great person.”
The Calgary native was the dean of business at the University of Manitoba, where he also sat on the board of the Winnipeg Airport Authority and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
His mother Louise Feltham — the business mind in the family which ranched and had a land development business, according to her son — was the Reeve of Rockyview County in the 1970s, then a member of parliament from 1988 to 1993.
“I grew up in a very entrepreneurial and political family, but grew in love with education,” said Feltham, who is married and has three children.