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rfmcdonaldNOW Toronto's Ben Spurr notes the remarkable nerve of Giorgio Mammoliti with his request to the city government to be reimbursed his legal costs for challenging city rules on fundraising.
According to a report on the agenda for Thursday's council meeting, Mammoliti has submitted to the city clerk more than $48,000 worth of legal bills that he incurred from a court case he launched against the city and the integrity commissioner this summer
Mammoliti is seeking a judicial review of council's decision to punish him for a May 2013 fundraiser that netted him $80,000. The event included lobbyists and others doing business with the city, and former integrity commissioner Janet Leiper found it was a serious breach of council's Code of Conduct. Council agreed, and in July voted 37-2 to mete out the harshest penalty allowable under the rules: the suspension of three months' pay.
In September, the Toronto Police announced they had initiated a criminal investigation into Mammoliti over the event.
Even though it was the first time council had slapped a member with the maximum allowable punishment, the penalty was criticized as inadequate because 90 days' pay is the equivalent of only $26,000, far less than the $80,000 Mammoliti raised at the 2013 event. Despite the discrepancy, in August he filed an application in an attempt to quash the integrity commissioner's ruling and council's decision.
Councillors are automatically entitled to have the costs of a judicial review related to a Code of Conduct violation covered by the city, but only up to a $20,000 limit. Mammoliti had already submitted invoices totalling $14,831.25, and the city clerk says he recently submitted an additional $33,644.87, bringing the total to $48,476.12.
