Peterborough County's warden won't lose his seat after one citizen accused him of not doing business in an "open and transparent manner" and urged council to consider his ejection.

Council received a letter from concerned citizen Lisa Rohleder calling for council to consider removing Warden J. Murray Jones from office.

But council wouldn't hear of it at a meeting on Wednesday.

Jones said he's received undue criticism lately from citizens over a disagreement about construction spending with Cavan Monaghan Township politicians.

"Some comments were downright mean and downright hurtful," Jones said. "And I did not deserve those type of comments."

He didn't deserve it at all, said Jim Whelan, deputy mayor of North Kawartha Township.

Whelan said he wanted to "assure" any letter writers that Jones has council's full support.

The criticism stems from a recent disagreement between Jones and two Cavan Monaghan Township politicians, Mayor Scott McFadden and Deputy Mayor Matthew Graham.

McFadden and Graham say their township is not getting its fair share of construction spending from Peterborough County's 2020 budget compared to other townships.

McFadden says the county's planning to spend $8 million on construction in Selwyn Township, for example, while less than $400,000 will be spent on projects in Cavan Monaghan.

Meanwhile Cavan Monaghan is experiencing a boom in residential development that is pumping taxes and development fees into county coffers, McFadden says.

But Jones issued a recent press release stating that decisions on construction spending are based on the needs of the county "as a whole" and not on which township happens to have a construction boom.

There's no unfairness occurring, Jones stated, but when McFadden and Graham asked for figures to back up that assertion there was no data immediately available.

On Wednesday council ordered a report from staff to break down spending on construction and transportation planning in each of the county's eight townships.

It was unclear exactly when that report will be released: staff wasn't given a deadline by council.

In the meantime county council received 22 letters from citizens who wanted to know why Jones didn't disclose figures.

Rohleder wrote that council's code of conduct requires councillors to conduct business in an "open and transparent" fashion, yet Jones is showing no transparency.

"Which leads me to ask - what else is Jones hiding?" she wrote.

Jones didn't refer to those comment directly or to Rohleder's letter when he spoke Wednesday to object to the criticism.

Neither McFadden nor Graham spoke up during the discussion.

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joelle.kovach

@peterboroughdaily.com