| Dec 22, 2011


Draft Frontenac County budget calls for 1.34% levy increase

At their final meeting of 2011, members of Frontenac County Council received the 2012 draft budget from the County Finance Department.

The county expects to spend just over $42 million in 2012, which is a drop of almost $1.8 million from the 2011 total of $43.8 million. This decrease is due mainly to the fact that in 2011 the cost of a new ambulance base and library in Sydenham were included in the county budget, and no large construction projects are planned for 2012.

The two major services that the county provides are the Fairmount Home for the Aged and the Frontenac Land Ambulance Service. Both are cost shared with the City of Kingston and the Province of Ontario.

The proposed increase in operating costs for Fairmount Home is $53,000, a 2.49% increase, which will edge the home’s budget over $10 million. Of that, the draft budget calls for $735,400 to come from Frontenac County taxpayers, an increase of $18,000 from 2011.

The total cost of the Frontenac Land ambulance is projected to rise above $15 million in 2012, an increase of over $500,000, but the province will be increasing their subsidy to the service by over $300,000 and the net increase to Frontenac County taxpayers will be just under $50,000, or 3.31%.

All told the draft budget calls for a levy of $8,510,000 to taxpayers, an increase of $112,182 (1.34%) from 2011.

While members of county council simply received the draft budget for information and will be conducting their budget debate at their January meeting, they did debate one item that is connected to the budget, a proposed pay increase for non-unionized staff.

A human resources report recommends increasing pay for non-unionized staff (which includes members of county council) by 2.9% in 2012. This reflects a cost of living increase plus some extra to bring the pay for professional staff more in line with the average costs in other municipalities.

“I can’t agree with that,” said Warden Gary Davison (the budget discussion took place before Davison tendered his resignation as warden). “We are going into contract negotiations with unionized staff in 2012 and this is not the kind of example we should be setting. We are looking at 2% as a kind of limit and I think we should stick to that for our non-unionized staff and members of council.”

The item was ultimately deferred to the next meeting.

Garrison Shores –

Without fanfare, the plan of condominium to create individual and shared lots on Garrison Lake near Arden was approved by council. Two members of the Garrison Shores Association were on hand to witness the end of a 30-year planning and legal quagmire.

County agendas publicly available. The county agenda packages are now available online for the public at the county website by clicking on the council tab. All agendas and reports and minutes from previous meetings will be uploaded and archived using the FilePro document management system. The archives will be searchable as well.

Gutowski wins the draw and becomes Frontenac County warden

For the past 13 years the annual election of the Frontenac County warden has been an election in name only. Each year the warden has tendered his or her resignation and the next in line, the deputy warden, has been the only nominee and has been acclaimed to the post.

After an election, if the incumbent warden has been re-elected in their township, they usually stay on as warden for the first year in order to provide continuity.

That was what happened in 2011 when South Frontenac’s returning mayor, Gary Davison, stayed on as county warden. Janet Gutowski, also a returning mayor, who had served as warden in 2009, took on the deputy warden role. It was understood that the two other mayors, first timers Dennis Doyle from the Frontenac Islands, and Bud Clayton from North Frontenac would take their turns in the third and fourth years of the county council mandate.

That was the way Gary Davison thought things were going at the December 14 meeting of Frontenac County Council.

He announced his resignation and then called for nominations. Councilor John McDougall from South Frontenac nominated Janet Gutowski and John Purdon from Central Frontenac seconded the nomination.

Just as Gary Davison was about to declare Gutowski elected, another hand shot up.

“I nominate Bud Clayton,” said Councilor John Inglis from North Frontenac, and Councilor David Jones from Frontenac Islands seconded the nomination.

Janet Gutowski looked surprised, and County CAO Liz Savill said she had to confer with Deputy Clerk Susan Beckel about preparing ballots for the unexpected vote.

Gary Davison gave each candidate an opportunity to say a few words.

“As you know, in the last term council decided to expand in an effort to bring changes to the county. I feel it is time for the new council to step forward and bring in someone that will do what the previous council expected us to do,” said Clayton.

“I feel my experience speaks for itself and I have a track record of collaboration,” said Gutowski. “I feel we have a good staff in Frontenac County. It does take a lot of time to be the warden. I can assure council that I will make my best efforts to work diligently on their behalf.”

Susan Beckel then handed each council member a piece of paper and said they should write the name of their preferred candidate on the paper. Once that was done, she gathered up all the pieces of paper.

A minute later CAO Savill came to the head of the council table and said, “There has been an equality of votes”.

Now it appeared as if all eight members of council were surprised.

When Frontenac County Council expanded from four to eight members at the beginning of this term, it was decided that whoever was the mayor of South Frontenac would have two votes, to give council nine votes. That was in order to give South Frontenac, which includes almost 60% of the population, some extra clout and it would also avoid deadlocked votes.

So why the tie vote?

“Each council only has one vote for the election of officers,” said Susan Beckel. She later explained that that was one of the stipulations in the procedural bylaw that council passed in 2010.

Liz Savill then said, “We’ll have to draw for a winner.”

She wrote the two names on two pieces of paper, folded them and put them in a hat.

Gary Davison pulled one and handed it to Savill.

“Janet Gutowski is the new warden,” Savill said.

With that, the deputy warden position came open.

Once again there were two nominees, Bud Clayton and Dennis Doyle. Another vote was taken and Dennis Doyle was declared the winner.

Afterwards Warden Gutowski said that the split on council that the vote for warden revealed was “just part of the growing pains of the new makeup of council. To me it is all water under the bridge and we will now move forward.”

She also said that one of her major goals for 2012 will be to get work on a County Official Plan off to a good start, to engage the City of Kingston in more meaningful discussions about shared issues, and to start addressing the infrastructure needs of the member townships in the County.

(Note – At this time only the four mayors are eligible for election as warden or deputy warden. In order to be eligible, a member on county council must have been elected by all the electors in his/her township, and not just by electors in one ward.)

 

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