Gutowski To Step Down As Warden At The End Of The Year

Jeff Green | Sep 25, 2013

In the heat of debate on a motion that was directed at her, Frontenac County Warden Janet Gutowski announced that she will step down as warden at the end of this year.

She said that she will be doing so “mostly because being the warden of a county is a large responsibility. To be a county warden you are the head of not just one but two councils, and there is not a lot of remuneration. I have said all along that I think two years is an appropriate term. So today I am serving notice to the citizens of Frontenac County whom I serve and I was elected to serve that I will stepping down as warden at the end of December.”

Last November, Gutowski raised eyebrows, and the hackles of her fellow county council members, when she did not step down after one year as warden, as had been the tradition in Frontenac County for 147 years.

She also refused to leave when Council overwhelmingly passed a motion of non-confidence last December.

As she approached the end of her second year as warden, the question of whether she would hold on to the position until the end of this council’s term in the fall of 2014 started to be raised, and that speculation is now gone.

The announcement came out in the midst of a debate at a council meeting last Wednesday (September 18) over a motion that was aimed at restricting her activities as head of council.

The motion, moved by Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle, and seconded by South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison, called for pre-approval in the form of a resolution from council before any member of county staff or council could attend a meeting with a federal or provincial minister, and would also require that any request for such a meeting “include any meeting notes to be discussed with the minister.”

The motion came about as the result of scenario that unfolded this past summer.

At the July council meeting, a staff report about the draft county Official Plan (OP), which was presented as an information report, made reference to a short meeting on the OP that staff was trying to set up with the Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs, Linda Jeffrey, at an Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in August.

In discussing that report, objections were raised about the draft Official Plan and about the wisdom of promoting the plan to the province in its current form. A motion to receive the report about the draft OP, for information purposes only, was defeated.

By defeating the motion, several members of council thought were also clearly indicating that staff should not pursue the meeting with Minister Jeffrey.

That meeting did take place, however and Warden Gutowski gave interviews about the meeting to some media outlets, with the result that those members of council who thought they had nixed the meeting in the first place ended up finding out that it had taken place by reading about it in newspaper accounts.

Their anger spilled out at a Committee of the Whole meeting of county council in early September, leading Doyle to bring forward his motion last week.

Dennis Doyle’s motion was seemingly headed for defeat before Gutowski made her announcement.

No arguments were made in favour of the motion, and three councilors said they would not be supporting it.

Councilor John Purdon said it was “too heavy a weight to have within our procedures” and Councilor John Inglis said it was “overly restrictive and really not workable.” North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton said he would not be supporting it either.

Once she had given everyone an opportunity to speak, Gutowski said she would like to say something. She said that in her opinion the motion was directed at her personally but would hinder the ability of any future warden to carry out the responsibilities of the job. Therefore it would be helpful if Council knew what her intentions were going forward.

Gary Davison did not see how Gutowski’s announcement was relevant to the motion, and continually raised a point of order as she was speaking, saying “What has this got to do with the motion on the floor?”

Warden Gutowski waved off his protestations, saying “I have the floor now and I will speak,” and completed her statement.

The motion was defeated, and another bitter meeting of Frontenac County Council came to a merciful end soon after.

Under Frontenac County rules, only the four mayors are eligible to run for county warden. Janet Gutowski will be leaving the post and Gary Davison has indicated he will not seek the position, which he has already held on two occasions. This leaves only Dennis Doyle and Bud Clayton as potential candidates in the election for warden that will likely be held in January.

For the purposes of warden elections, there are no weighted votes. By virtue of being the mayor of the largest municipality in the county, Gary Davison has two votes on all substantive motions before the council, but not in a warden or deputy warden election. This makes a tie vote among the eight members of council a very real possibility.

In fact when Janet Gutowski was elected warden in November of 2011, it was as the result of her name being pulled out of a hat after a 4-4 vote between herself and Bud Clayton.