Letters: Sep 19/13

Letters | Sep 11, 2013

Re: Gutowski sues fellow councilors for defamation

I have just read in the Sept. 12 Frontenac News that Mayor Gutoswki is in a fit of moral indignation, because a member of the council dared to comment on her behaviour which she thought would ruin her future job offers and therefore wages and wishes vengeance through the courts by a punitive amount in damages.

This has two things against it I feel should be aired:

1. This action sends a message to anyone daring to say what they think or feel, that they will be prosecuted through the courts and silenced, as we are all too often hearing nowadays is the normal mode of operation in politics to stop the truth from being heard and cripple your opponent financially.

2. One wonders if Mayor Gutowski, by filing for such a ludicrous inflated amount in damages, thinks she is destined to become some super star of politics. Maybe she is, probably not, but NOT ON MY DIME.

Let Mayor Gutowski pay for her own lavish defence lawyers. Also, if she were successful, would the damages of $1 million also be picked up by the taxpayer? And are the fees also up to the taxpayer to pay for? I cannot see any councillor having a million dollars to spare on a trivial case such as this. If she wishes to sue all and sundry, then let our mayor or councillors do it from their OWN pockets; our taxes are exorbitant enough for what we get, without having to pay for hurt pride with a free ride of charge to drag through expensive court time. Who does she think she is? Harper?

If the expense were borne by the complainant or alleged “defamed”, perhaps we would see a more civil set of councillors being able to talk and work with each other and not so much bickering or useless rhetoric of hurt feelings and bruised egos emboldened by being financed by the taxpayers. It is easy to go to court when you have no responsibility for those costs or your time.

If these “ordinary people” - and that is all they are, ordinary people just doing a job - start getting above their station, as appears to be happening here, and can willy-nilly start suing all and sundry without any fear of having to pick up the tab themselves, just as they do in Ottawa to quash any dissent, we will see more and more jumping on this band wagon, landing all the costs on the tax payer as usual. This is a gross misallocation of taxpayers’ money!

Rodney L. Hoff

[Editors note – there has been no discussion on the public record, as far as we know, about who is paying Ms. Gutowski’s legal costs in regard to the lawsuit she has launched. There is no record, at this point, of her making such a request to the county. In interviews that we have conducted, she did not say that she has or will ask the county to pay her legal fees]