
CORNWALL – Coun. Brock Frost has announced via email that he is resigning from council at the end of the month.
“I have decided to step down from Council. My last day will be July 1/15,” Frost said in an email to city media outlets Tuesday afternoon.
The rookie councillor has faced a tumultuous start to his political career, including the most recent development of charges levelled against him in Levis, Que. surrounding the ownership of the Cornwall River Kings hockey team.
There are two more council meetings before his self-imposed resignation date.
The corporation will have a number of options for replacing Frost.
It can pick the person who came in 11th in the municipal election (Guy St-Jean), appoint a person from the community at large or hold a by-election.
St-Jean, who recently moved to Florida, has already indicated that he would not seek the vacant office seat if asked.
“When I moved back to Cornwall years ago I knew I could make a difference in the community and I really have a passion…and I wanted to run for council to do that,” St-Jean told Cornwall Newswatch.
“Basically, the understanding that my husband and I had, Charlie, was that if I get elected I had his 100 per cent support to run for office and whatever happened in four years etc. And if I wasn’t elected we had a plan already in place…we move to our next plan which was to retire in Florida,” he said.
“There’s another thing that I want people to understand is that I’m not a person that sits around waiting for something to happen. I gave it my all. I respect the constituents for voting the way they did,” St-Jean said.
The businessman believes, in his opinion, “the fairest approach” would be for the city to hold a by-election to chose Frost’s successor, suggesting those below 10th place were not voted into office.
St-Jean also believes a lot may have changed in the voters’ minds in the past six months.
If the city were to go with picking the next in line, it would be now-Cornwall and Area Chamber of Commerce President Denis Carr.
Carr, who came in 12th, has indicated in several media reports that he is open to looking at filling the position.
Frost came in eighth in the Oct. 27 municipal election, garnering 4,178 votes or 4.53 per cent of all eligible votes.
The following is an emailed statement from Coun. Brock Frost:
In February of this year I made a conscious decision to move to Ottawa to pursue better business opportunities in real estate. I signed papers for a condo on February 25th, completed my Broker course on April 23rd, officially moved to Ottawa on May 1st and resigned from Storm Realty on May 4th (to be effective as of June 1st).
I had full intentions of finishing out my term on Council….until recently.
The past few months, and more so the past few weeks, have truly solidified my reason for moving. Put bluntly, I have no more time or energy to deal with the incessant drama, gossip and online rhetoric that has become to define the City of Cornwall.
This was the right move for me and I am extremely happy for the decision I made today.
Thank you once again to all my supporters, you know who you are. Because of you all, I leave Cornwall with a feeling of pure sweet-sorrow.
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