Brock Frost hands in resignation: clerk

Cornwall Coun. Brock Frost during a December 2014 budget meeting. (Cornwall Newswatch/File)

CORNWALL – City councillor Brock Frost has resigned and this time it’s the real deal.

Frost went to city hall this morning to make it official.

In a letter dated October 23, 2015, Frost said he has come to the realization that being a councillor “is not a part-time job” and that he needs to focus his attention on his real estate work.

The rookie councillor recently moved to Ottawa and had planned to commute but “I vastly underestimated the amount of work required as a City Councillor.”

“Since real estate is what pays the bills, I have no choice but to continue to make that my top priority,” Frost wrote.

According to Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy, Frost had been on leave from council and was dealing with health issues. He was expected to return Oct. 27 “based on the doctor’s recommendation,” the mayor had said.

Since the mayor’s announcement Sept. 28, Frost had been on a European vacation that was widely publicized on social media.

Frost had earlier sent a one-line email to members of the media in June where he said he had “decided to step down from Council” but later had a change of heart.

Clerk Helen Finn told Cornwall Newswatch, Frost signed the letter and spoke with her at length before he left her office just before 10 a.m. Monday.

Finn said Frost’s seat will be declared vacant at tonight’s council meeting.

At that point, council has 60 days to make a decision on how it will fill the empty council seat.

The clerk said a report will come to the second meeting in November for a process to be followed to fill the seat.

The city can either hold a by-election, pick the next person in the list of people who participated in the election (in this case it would be Denis Carr as Guy St. Jean has relocated to Florida), or it can pick someone from the public at large.

Here is the resignation letter in its entirety:

October 23, 2015

Dear friends, family, colleagues and members of the public,

As most of you are already aware, in May 2015 I decided to move my real estate career to Ottawa to pursue better investment opportunities. Originally, I had planned to live and work in both Ottawa and Cornwall and commute back and forth as my schedule dictated. Unfortunately however, I vastly underestimated the amount of work required as a City Councillor.

Despite what the salary suggests, being a Councillor is not a part-time job. There are council meetings, numerous committee meetings, special meetings, strategic planning, dealing with the general public and countless community events. It is a full-time job if one wishes to be truly effective.  Since real estate is what pays the bills, I have no choice but to continue to make that my top priority. There are simply not enough hours in the day for me to be effective as a City Councillor while maintaining a real estate career at the same time. Believe me, I’ve tried. But the result has been nothing but complete physical and mental exhaustion which has negatively affected all areas of my life. For that reason, I hereby resign my seat on City Council effective immediately.

It is extremely difficult for me to give up something I worked so hard for but I do not see any other option in the matter. I would rather give the opportunity for someone else to replace me than to maintain my seat and be ineffective at my job. The constituents definitely deserve better than that from their elected officials, and my colleagues certainly deserve better from me.

I have always lived by the philosophy that there are no failures in life, only experiences. I have learned a great deal about myself over this last year and I wholeheartedly intend to return to politics sometime in the near future.

I would like to thank my friends, family and colleagues for their continued support. You will always be in my thoughts and in my heart.

Sincerely yours,
Brock Frost

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