[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto councillor got $275K in loans from realtors he backed"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC journalists Zach Dubinsky and Shannon Kari broke the story that Toronto city councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, a Ford ally who has had any number of public embarrassment, was accepting loans from real estate investors for whom he had previously gotten permission to put up billboards on their properties located next to Highway 401.

See also Torontoist's coverage.

A Toronto politician who helped a pair of real-estate investors get permission to place advertising billboards next to a major highway later received at least $275,000 in mortgage loans from them, a CBC News investigation has found.

The loans to Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti were, in each case, issued two years after he successfully put forward motions at Etobicoke York community council meetings to allow the billboards on properties alongside Highway 401.

One of the real-estate investors is also the landlord for Mammoliti's constituency office and has been involved in several realty transactions involving the city councillor over the last six years.

Loans from individuals to councillors are not prohibited by the conduct rules for Toronto politicians, and whether they must be disclosed is a grey area, according to experts in the field.

"Loans are a bit tricky because we all get loans sometimes in our lives from financial institutions that generally don't give way to any sort of obligation," explained David Siegel, a political science professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., who specializes in local government.

"But, say, when the loan is with somebody who does business with the city, there is always a question about whether there are special arrangements around that loan."

Mammoliti would not comment and referred inquiries to a lawyer, who did not return calls. The city councillor has previously said some of the billboard motions he brought forward were part of an effort to "clean up old signs" in an area where illegal advertising has multiplied over the years.