“I like the job, why wouldn't I run?”
he replied to an enquiry by reporter Adrian Humphreys about his
intentions.
And he's very good at some of it.
Joe Fontana likes the glad-handing and
the cheer-leading. He's not the most articulate mayor London has ever
had, but his enthusiasm for public events—cutting cakes and
ribbons—is undeniable. Still, of late his reception appears
somewhat strained. Being Londoners, guests at these events are
generally polite but increasingly meaningful glances are exchanged
along with sotto voce comments.
But last week he had a bit of good
news. An old friend, Tony Basca, had failed to convince a superior
court judge in Milton that, when Joe Fontana had promised him that he
would get paid for the work he had been doing for GPEC Global in
Romania, it was a personal commitment. The judge doubted that our
mayor would have done such a thing, promise to personally be good
for the money owed by the waste to energy company where Fontana
chaired the management team. He ruled in favour of Fontana and
dismissed the case, leaving the parties to sort out the matter of
covering the costs of the civil suit.
Perhaps Basca was naive to think that
he could count on the mayor's friendship or the alleged Christian
principles of the company he helped create. GPEC Global apparently
raised quite a few dollars from unsuspecting investors but the touted
overseas projects and their economic spinoffs never actually
materialized. Fontana claims that he, himself, was paid for only a
few months before the money ran out. How on earth could he pay Tony?
And what has any of this to do with his
job as mayor of the city of London? According to an earlier statement
by Fontana, he should only be judged by his work for the city, not
his personal life.
Fontana sought the mayoralty promising
fiscal responsibility and jobs. He would put London on the map.
London, under his stewardship, would thrive and grow. It would be the
city of opportunity.
But when Londoners narrowly chose
Fontana over Anne-Marie DeCicco-Best in 2010, they did so with little
knowledge or discussion of Fontana's qualifications for the job.
Sure, he had been an MP for many years which should have given him
some contacts to draw on, but the Liberals were no longer in power
having suffered greatly from entitlement scandals, and the new
in-group in Ottawa wasn't so friendly. What he had been up to since
leaving Ottawa in 2006 and the election of 2010 did not draw much
scrutiny.
It turns out that Fontana had been a
rather busy boy during those four years. He looked up some old
friends, made some new ones and quickly became immersed in setting up
a number of companies, primarily related to energy. Doing so involved
a fair amount of international travel.
One of his encounters was close to
home, however. His partnership in Allus Power with Robert Vanier, a
neighbour, soured when Fontana's company car was towed out of his
driveway for nonpayment of the lease. Vanier was later found to have
a long criminal record with ties to organized crime.
Fontana continued his involvement in
energy, becoming chairperson of the board of Green Power Enviro Corp
(GPEC) which was being promoted as a business based on Christian
principles. Following the failed mission in Romania—apparently
neither the available money nor the technology was sufficient to get
the project off the ground—the company seems not to have been able
to find another gig. It still has a minimal presence on the internet
but the address given is listed as for lease, available immediately.
KMW, the London Company whose technology GPEC Global was planning to use for its waste to energy plants, likewise is maintaining a low profile,
with no indication of any activity in the energy field for some time.
Fontana also brought Omniwatt, a German
company specializing in solar and wind projects, to London and became
its Canadian director. Together with Todd Gillick's Synergy+Energy
Solutions, Omniwatt managed to scoop up $800,000 in donations from
individuals and grants from the provincial and federal governments to
install solar panels on the roof of the Boys and Girls club without
the benefit of a tender. It probably didn't hurt that Gillick was
treasurer of the Boys and Girls Club at the time although he left
that position when it was learned that he had been reprimanded and
fined by the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada for forging
signatures on a will. Still, Fontana engaged him to handle the
financial aspects of his mayoral campaign and made him co-chair of
his economic prosperity council when he became mayor. Gillick is
currently a members of the Mayor's Sustainable Energy Council.
While all this was going on, Fontana
was becoming involved in the charity business with yet another
friend, this time one that dated from his childhood in Timmins. Vince
Ciccone had set up Trinity Global Support Foundation in 2007 and the
following year invited Fontana to help manage it. With the aid of a
couple of tax shelters and Fontana's son to manage it, Trinity was
soon issuing hugely inflated tax receipts, making it Canada's largest
charity by far until the Canada Revenue Agency pulled the plug a
couple of months ago. To date, Fontana has been unable to explain how
the operations of the charity could be regarded as legitimate
although he continues to insist that it fed thousands of hungry kids
in Canada and saved thousands of lives of AIDS victims in third world
countries. Ciccone, in the meantime, was found to have run afoul of
the Ontario Securities Commission and his business, in which Trinity
had invested millions of dollars, went belly up.
And finally, there is the story that
everyone can understand, the simple tale of the wedding reception for
Fontana's son which was billed to the taxpayer. For that, Fontana is
facing criminal charges. He seems confident that he will be found, if
not innocent, at least not guilty. In the eyes of his lawyer, it's
the same thing. And that will clear the decks for another run.
In the meantime, there is still the
matter of the backroom meeting at Billy T's. Just a matter of
coincidence, mind you, that seven members of council all turned up on
a Saturday afternoon the weekend before the final budget vote, in the
private backroom of an out of the way restaurant which, while serving
up a good, reasonably priced meal, is hardly a destination place. And
some entered through the back door. All members of Fontana's 8. There
will be no negotiating who pays the legal bills for dealing with the ombudsman's questions about
that rendez-vous. C'est tu.
So Fontana may run again If so, how
will he fare?
The last time he presented himself to
the voters his integrity went unquestioned and his past behaviour
unscrutinized. This time around, he won't have that protection.
And the voters won't have that excuse.
7 comments:
Fontana is a slippery fish to catch. We can only hope that there will be a more competent person to win the next municipal election. It would be nice to see genuine integrity and realistic goals for our City rather than constant scrutiny of its Council/Mayor and smoke and mirror initiatives...is that too much to ask?
he is a pathological liar. I was at one all candidates meeting when he promised to keep the trains for running through London during rush hour!
Of course he wants the job, he has many legal bills to pay!
I thank the Lord for Robert Ford every day. London doesn't have Canada's worst Mayor.
All this without mention of Joe's shabby dealings at council. Fontana may not be the worst mayor in Canada—tough competition from Toronto & Montreal—but he is far worse than we deserve. We should be comparing him to the best—Naheed Nenshi & others. Enough of sleazy, glib & self-serving. We need someone smart, accomplished & passionate to lead us out of this muddle.
As Kathleen Wynne runs around doing damage control for the Fiberals, she would be well-advised to introduce legislation that would force Ontario mayors (and councillors) to step aside until they clear their names, if only when criminal charges surface.
You have pointed out in a previous blog, Gina, that this would be the same kind of suspension our mayor would be forced to take if he was a cop, teacher or nurse.
The guy who is supposed to be our head cheer-leader is looking like a gigantic zit on the face of London.
Amazing as usual. And you hit the nail on the head: Fontana is clearly exactly the kind of person who can delude himself into believing that his record is somehow spotless enough to make him a credible candidate for leadership. And, you are right again, it is not his self-evaluation that matters, it is ours. Here's to an engaging civic election full of real ideas, legitimate vision for the future and candidates with integrity.
How can we encourage Joni Baechler or Nancy Branscombe to run against JoFo in 2014?? Either one would make a superb mayor.
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