A return to form in Warden election

Jeff Green | Jan 08, 2014

Frontenac County Council - December 18/13

Bud Clayton has assumed the mantle of Frontenac County Warden for 2014.

The election, held at the December meeting of Frontenac County Council, was a non-event. The only other potential candidate, Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle, nominated Clayton for the post, effectively ending the race and leading to an acclamation for Clayton.

The other two possible candidates were Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski, whose resignation as warden precipitated the election, and South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison, who has also already served as warden this term and had indicated publicly that he was not interested in taking on the job again.

Dennis Doyle was acclaimed to the deputy warden post.

The low-key election marked a stark contrast to the previous warden election, which took place in December of 2011. At that time Bud Clayton contested Janet Gutowski for the position, the first time a Frontenac County warden election had been contested since municipal amalgamation in 1998. The 2011 election resulted in a 4-4 tied vote, which was broken when Gutowski’s name was pulled from a hat.

In 2012 no election was held because Warden Gutowski decided not to resign after one year, a tradition that had held sway for over 145 years but was not required by county bylaws.

Gutowski's decision led to controversy that dominated the county council agenda in debates in early 2014. The bylaw has since been changed and after this year's municipal election, the warden's term will be for a single year.

“We have a lot to do with one year left in our mandate,” said Clayton in assuming the warden's post, “what with the service delivery review we are receiving today, the upcoming budget, the search for a new CAO and a strategic plan to complete. Hopefully we can move forward.”

Gutowski chides committee

Janet Gutowski was still the Frontenac County warden at the final 2013 Frontenac County meeting on December 19, but she got a jump start in the role of gadfly that she will likely be taking on in 2014. She took objection to the fact that Frontenac Islands Mayor, Dennis Doyle, added three recommendations to a review of service delivery in the county without the service delivery review committee voting on the new recommendations

“The report the committee looked at had 27 recommendations. Three additional recommendations were added by the project manager and the consultant, without direction from the committee. They acted on their own,” said Gutowski.

Dennia Doyle is a member of the committee, and is also the project manager for the review.

“It is a long report, greatly detailed, we spent $100,000 on it. We should disband the committee and consider this report as a full council. I'm not happy that the project manager is not following our procedural bylaw here,” she added.

For his part, Dennis Doyle said he is “not sure what the issue is here. The additional items were discussed at the meeting; they were not just added on.”

South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davision said, “Those recommendations were the consensus of the committee. Our fear is that they would disappear into the abyss if we did not put them there. This committee is not intent on directing the results of this review. Everything that is discussed is brought to the full council for decision."

“I just point out that members of council are not respecting their own procedures on this committee," replied Gutowski.

The three recommendations that were added to the Service Delivery Review are not that controversial.

One was to limit the number of staff attending council meetings. The second was for the two largest services the county operates, Fairmount Home and Frontenac Land Ambulance, to bring a financial report to Council every three months. The third was to “develop a policy of gradual adjustments to the tax levy to avoid unforeseen spikes or drops.”

Later, Gutowski said the issue that concerns her is one of process.

“The new recommendations are not necessarily a problem, but if we want to say that the committee is recommending something to council, it must come from the committee, not after the fact by one member.”

Another aspect of the service delivery review, which concerns proposed changes to employee responsibilities and the resulting labour relations issues that would result, were the subject of an hour-long in camera session at the December meeting, resulting in no immediate action being taken.

2014 County budget

Dennis Doyle put forward a motion requesting that the treasurer bring forth two budget options for council's consideration, one with a 1% increase in taxes and one with a 1% decrease.

Treasurer/Acting Chief Administrator Marian Vanbruinessen pointed out, as she had in a report in November, that the county is facing a shortfall of $458,000 for 2014 as the result of a number of factors, including cuts to transfers from the province, which means that in order to maintain a 1% decrease, 6% in savings will have to be found.

“That is all well and good,” said Doyle, “but could you present us with two versions of the budget, one with a 1% increase and one with a 1% decrease, and we will have those discussions then.”

Doyle's motion was approved