reality tv

The Bachelorette's 'local politician' Jess has been asked to resign. He's refusing to.

To catch up on all The Bachelorette Australia 2019 recaps and gossip, check out Mamamia’s recaps and visit our Bachelorette hub page.

When the fine people of Noosa tuned into the premiere of The Bachelorette this week, they may have been a bit… confused by a familiar face.

Donning a red cape for far longer than necessary and carrying a chair that was much too large, Noosa councillor Jess Glasglow made a cringe-worthy entry onto the show. Then he gave bachelorette Angie Kent a key to his apartment and…

Angie’s face best sums this up:

jess the bachelorette
HUH
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As the episode played out Jess outed himself as a bit of a villain, but didn't miss the opportunity to spruik his political credentials and his home region.

Then in Thursday night's second episode... It was BAD. Really bad. Creepy bad.

After being called out by multiple other dudes for a number of inappropriate actions, Angie sent Jess packing with a spectacular feminist take down.

Now... look. Spending your days in local council meetings and having to fake smile while shaking hands with constituents sounds like torture for many of us. So we can't really blame him for wanting some time off to live in a mansion, drink wine and enjoy the company of two alpacas, 19 other men and an Osher.

Listen to The Bachelorette Angie Kent talk about what really went on while filming the series and how she knew who to trust. 

But it was... a disaster. And now he's back on the Sunshine Coast, changing his apartment locks and fighting to keep his job.

On the red carpet Jess bragged that he was a local councillor, "the one below the mayor" and because we strongly believe in the media's role in holding those in power to account, we here at Mamamia have conducted a very important and serious investigation into what exactly Jess... does, and how a local politician found himself on a reality TV dating show.

Right off the bat, that "one below the mayor" thing is... not true. Because there is a deputy mayor, and it 100 per cent is not him.

jess the bachelorette
This very public, easy to find web page shows you are at least two below the mayor, dude.
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From what we can gather, 'local politician' is a full time job (and you'd hope so, with an annual salary of $67,945 according to Queensland's Local Government Remuneration and Discipline Tribunal Report 2017).

Jess has sat on the council since 2016 and the beauty of his role as a publicly elected official means we, the public, have access to a lot of information about him.

He spends his days in council meetings and chairs the Regional Arts Development Fund Committee, Noosa Heritage Reference Group and Capital Works Executive. We have no idea what that means, but it sounds riveting.

According to an interview with the Sunshine Coast Daily, Jess was approached by Channel 10 to be on the show rather than applying himself.

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Oh... sure.

"I was approached by Channel 10 to do this. I said why not? ... I'm 37, time's moving on and it was a great opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime chance."

He said there were "sparks and chemistry" between him and Angie, and maybe he has a different understanding of those words' definitions than we do.

According to his (now private) Instagram account, Jess is not just a councillor but also a "property buyer, entrepreneur" and... "creativity". ¯\_(ヅ)_/¯

jess the bachelorette
SO INCONVENIENT TO OUR STALKING.
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The interwebs tell us Jess' major policy focuses include a night flight curfew for Sunshine Coast Airport and less cars, more... scooters, which he is a big fan of. Mate, you know things didn't go well when riding in on a scooter would've been a less embarrassing way to enter the show.

We dove deep into the minutes from recent Noosa Shire Council meetings... and came up with absolutely nothing even remotely interesting enough to include in this article. The things we do in the name of investigative journalism, huh?

He also owns two properties in Noosa, one is presumably the apartment he's now having to change the locks to, and the other an investment property.

While Angie would've rather died single than end up with Jess after The Bachelorette, at least he can now focus his energy on trying to win back his job in the March 2020 elections... if he survives that long.

Jess' introduction to The Bachelorette was such a trainwreck, Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington was forced to address it on Thursday.

Apparently, Jess didn't seek the necessary approvals to appear on the show and his conduct was "not reflective" of the council stands for.

"Cr Glasgow did not seek approval from myself and I only found out about his involvement after the show had been recorded," the Mayor said, adding that his councillor's appearance on the show will be referred to the Office of the Independent Assessor for an alleged breach of the Councillor’s Code of Conduct.

Uh oh.

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Then on Friday, after Jess' elimination, Mayor Wellington told Fitzy & Wippa he had asked Jess to resign.

"That sort of offensive, crude misogynistic behaviour is just not on," he said. "He can’t be fired but I tell you I’ll be speaking with Jess about his future on the council. I don’t see that he has a future on his council.

"I’m very deeply upset. I watched it with my wife, she found it very offensive as most women I assume would. He’s not young, he’s in his late 30, so he should know better.

"I spoke to him this morning and I told him that my recommendation was that he resign from his position. He’s under the belief that he can brave it out."

Yeah, Jess wants to "brave it out". He told Fitzy & Wippa as much himself.

"It’s been a terrible 24 hours. As you can imagine, it’s World War III," he said. "Absolutely I cringed, it’s not me at all, it’s reality TV. I sincerely apologise, I never ever meant to have those words come out that way."

Despite all the evidence we saw to the contrary, Jess said the women in his life could speak to how respectful he was: "I treat my grandma like a godsend".

He said he was not going to resign as asked, insisting he was just attempting to be "fun and jovial".

He later told Kyle Sandilands (who insisted Jess' behaviour was "not that bad") on KIIS' Kyle and Jackie O show he would wait to see what his constituents thought in next year's March election.

Uh... happy voting, Noosa.