Someone Has To Eat Crow To End This

Jeff Green | Sep 11, 2013

It has been almost 10 months since Frontenac County Warden Janet Gutowski defied the rest of her council and refused to relinquish her position as warden. At the time she argued she was the only one on council with the requisite knowledge and experience necessary to carry out the role properly. She made use of a loophole, which has since been plugged, which allowed her to remain in the post for a second year without seeking re-election.

At that time I wrote that her decision to insist on remaining in the post of warden would lead to unyielding acrimony and political stagnation at Frontenac County.

It is safe to say that prediction has come through, in spades.

Rather than take action to deal with issues of concern to county residents, the county is now conducting two navel-gazing exercises, a service delivery review and a strategic planning exercise. An ill-informed Kingston City Councilor, noting that the county is poorly run, has even felt justified in calling for Frontenac Paramedic Services to be dismantled and turned over to the City.

And now, to top it off, the warden is suing four members of county council for defamation, and is asking for a million dollars in damages.

To a great extent, all of the controversy surrounding Janet Gutowski can be traced back to her unwise decision to hang on to the warden’s position, including the remarks that are the subject of the lawsuit, and to that extent, the responsibility for the entire mess lies on her shoulders.

That being said, I think it is about time that the four members of council named in Gutowski's defamation suit show some leadership of their own and rescind the motion that precipitated the suit. And yes, they need to apologize as well.

The fact is that Councilor David Jones, in putting forward the motion that led to the suit back in May, did not have any solid backing for his allegation of “influence peddling”.

In levelling the accusation, Jones did not even claim he had been offered anything to change his vote on the county budget, he only referred to an email he received from “another member of council” which, he said, contained an allegation that the other member had been offered an inducement in exchange for changing his vote. The e-mail in question was written to Jones by North Frontenac mayor, Bud Clayton, and the alleged inducement was a cut in the Fairmount Home budget. Clayton acknowledged sending the email, but in an interview with the News he denied that the e-mail contained an allegation that any kind of firm offer had been made to him in return for his change of vote on the budget.

The key fact in all this is that the Fairmount Home budget figures that were passed in May were the same as they had been when the budget was rejected in April. Bud Clayton knew the Fairmount budget was the same and he voted for the budget. If the Fairmount cut was going to be the pay-off for Clayton’s vote, there was no pay-off.

As to Jones' further allegation that Gutowski told Clayton she would resign as warden if he supported the budget, there is no substantive proof of that happening either.

So, why did the majority of county council support Jones' motion?

All I can figure is that the four who supported the motion did so in order to demonstrate they were still opposed to Gutowski remaining in the position of warden, and not because they really believed in the “influence peddling” nonsense.

The motion that was passed had no effect. Council had no authority to strip Gutowski of her position as either a member of the council or the warden, and a call to Linda Jeffrey, Minister of Municipal Affairs, to investigate the matter was deftly sidestepped by ministry staff

The ministry said Council should consider adopting a code of conduct for its members, and as far as any claim of wrongdoing was concerned, “If Council is of the opinion that something illegal may have occurred, they may wish to consult with the local police services to determine if an investigation is warranted,” wrote Minister Jeffrey.

Instead of letting the matter slide, Janet Gutowski hired a lawyer. The lawyer sent a letter to the councilors asking them to rescind the motion and apologize, upon threat of a lawsuit. They ignored the letter. Gutowski proceeded with the suit.

Now the councilors are faced with a choice. They can stand their ground, claiming that everything that was said and done by them is protected under the “limited privilege” that exists for statements made within the confines of a municipal council chamber. To make this argument, they need to pay lawyers, and this will either cost them money (that would not be good for them) or cost the county money because since they were working for the county at the time they may seek to have the county cover some or all of their legal costs (that would not be good for the rest of us).

Or they could acknowledge that David Jones' motion was foolhardy. The fact that it was passed was a mistake they made in the heat of the moment. Someone has to end this, in the interest of the county and its ratepayers.

To rescind the motion would be easy. To apologize to Janet Gutowski would be a hard thing to do. It would be a spectacle, perhaps even a bit of a humiliation.

But it would put an end to this foolishness. It might even create an opening for Janet Gutowski to finally do the right thing and resign as Frontenac County warden this fall rather than hanging on until the bitter end of the council’s term a year from now.