Council Set to Challenge Gutowski Again

Jeff Green | Dec 20, 2012

After learning at a special meeting last Tuesday that Warden Janet Gutowski is not prepared to relinquish her role after one year, as has been the practice for Frontenac County wardens, members of Council will be challenging that decision at this week's meeting.

Two motions are set for debate at the tail end of the final meeting of Frontenac County Council this year.

Recognizing that Council has no authority to force Gutowski to resign, the first motion asked that the procedural bylaw be changed so that after the next election the warden will be elected for a one-year term rather than the four-year term that is currently in place.

In the preamble, the motion says, “It has been a long standing tradition and past practice at the County that each warden has annually resigned and a new warden was appointed each year.”

It then says that “Council (with the exception of Warden Gutowski) does not agree with and/or does not support the warden’s decision and Council requests this be documented in Council minutes,”, and concludes by directing the Chief Administrative Officer “ to prepare and bring back a By-law for consideration in January 2013, changing the term of the Warden to one year only, effective immediately after the next general municipal election.”

The second motion being proposed is directed squarely at Gutowski.

It says in the preamble that council “has lost confidence in the Warden's ability to lead” and later on charges that she “has shown a habit of picking and choosing which clauses of our procedural By-law she is going to follow”.

The motion concludes with the following resolution: “Therefore, a vote of non-confidence is being called and furthermore, Warden Gutowski is being asked by Frontenac County Council to immediately resign from the Warden’s position.”

Among the movers and seconders of the two motions are the three other mayors on Council along with Councilor Jones from Frontenac Islands.

If passed, the motions would not be binding on Warden Gutowski. They would, however, be a definitive indication of the displeasure of Frontenac County at her decision to remain as warden for another year, or perhaps two years.

(Note – this article was written before the Wednesday, December 19 Frontenac County Council meeting took place, and the paper was being printed as events unfolded at the meeting. The next edition of the Frontenac News will not be published until January 10 because of our Christmas break. However, the results of this vote at yesterday's meeting are available via the our twitter feed @frontenacnews and an article detailing all the outcomes of the meeting will have been posted on our website Frontenacnews.ca by the time this paper has been distributed)