David Jones: The Definition of Irony

Nov 26, 2014

by Jeff Green

The numerous apologies offered by soon to be former Councilor David Jones from Frontenac Islands at the final Frontenac County Council meeting of the term on November 19 could be used as samples in the dictionary definition of irony.

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines irony in the following way: “The expression of meaning using language that normally expresses the opposite”.

There was a moment, a short one, when it seemed that Mr. Jones was indeed delivering an apology in his last statement to his fellow council members.

“I publicly and unequivocally apologize for my disruptive behavior over the past four years,” he said, but his intentions became apparent shortly thereafter. “I apologize for suggesting that previous councils had abdicated their responsibilities and that staff was running the county and years of surplus budgets had amassed a small fortune in reserves and reserve funds without appropriate capital plans, an investment strategy or strategic plan. I regret using the terms 'waste and mismanagement' when referring to our administrators.”

Jones' frustrations with Frontenac County Council have been well documented, and it was his assertions about former warden, Janet Gutowski, which led her to launch a still active defamation suit against him and the three other council members who supported a motion of censure that accompanied those assertions.

He referred to the lawsuit in one of his apologies: “I apologize to my colleagues, the late Warden Clayton, Councillor McDougall and Councillor Doyle for dragging them into a law suit for merely speaking out and not sitting on my hands,” he said.

He also apologized for being critical of the management of Frontenac Paramedic Services.

In recent months David Jones' level of frustration about the direction of the council has been mounting.

“We are running out of time in this mandate if we want to make meaningful changes,” he said on at least two occasions this past year.

However, he clearly intended to return to Frontenac County Council for a second term. Frontenac Islands has a different procedure for choosing its representatives to county council than the other Frontenac townships. Howe Island and Wolfe Island form the two wards of the Frontenac Islands Council, and the council candidate that receives the most votes in the ward where the successful candidate for mayor does not live becomes the deputy mayor and second county representative.

Mayor Doyle, who is from Wolfe Island, was easily re-elected on October 27, but on Howe Island David Jones finished second, behind Natalie Nossal, meaning he was returned as a member of Frontenac Islands Council but is no longer the deputy mayor and county representative.

He alluded to that result in his statement, apologizing to Howe Islands residents for the “trauma caused by individuals, introducing themselves as paramedics arriving on Howe Island the week before the election distributing literature and door knocking to advise residents 'not to vote for David Jones' – but naming another candidate more sympathetic to their cause ...”

When reached by phone early this week, Jones said that a number of paramedics “from the mainland” did indeed visit voters on Howe Island and told people that he was an enemy of paramedic services and was in favour of service cuts.

“This was misinformation,” he said. “They told people that if they voted for me the ambulance would not come when they called 911. I am not an enemy of paramedic services, far from it, but I am an enemy of waste and bad management. I was one of only two members of the council who voted against a service cut that was proposed to us by staff last year.”

Jones has decided not to take up his seat on Frontenac Islands Council in December.

“I feel that we have done the work we needed to do to set Frontenac Islands on a good path,” he said. “The real work to do was at the county.”

His parting words to the county indicated he had decided to walk away from municipal politics: “And finally I apologize for once thinking I could effectively represent my constituents and make a contribution in this chamber. Clearly I let my constituents down but at least now, we all know who really runs the show.”

After he had made his remarks, a number of councillors expressed support for the role he has played, including Warden Dennis Doyle, Mayor Gary Davison and Councilor John McDougall from South Frontenac.

Others remained silent.

Absenteeism rates at Frontenac County

One of the issues that David Jones has been most concerned about at the county is absenteeism, which he says has run rampant in recent years. He said that the monthly reports on absenteeism that Council asked for have been delivered with “no context, no action plan attached, nothing.”

The October report shows that absenteeism among Frontenac paramedics is down this year, on pace for a decrease of 17% from its historic high in 2013, and 8% below the rate in 2012. The rate at Fairmount Home, however, is on pace to be up by a whopping 40% over 2013 levels, although it will be only 8% over what it was in 2012.

In terms of the overall operational cost of sick time at Frontenac County, the numbers in 2014 are headed to about the same level as those in 2013.