You Have To Read The Whole Article.....

...to appreciate why I feel the majority of councilors are clowns. Greg wraps it up pretty well; "Re: Council pays for suit settlement" (Sue-Ann Levy, Dec. 11): Priceless. This is almost as funny as paying people to pretend to be homeless. Who needs the Comedy Network when I can watch the dog and pony show at City Hall? Keep up the good work Toronto, we in the 905 and 705 can really use a good laugh in these tough times. GREG DEJARDINE

$65Gs salary top-up a big no-no

By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN

In the dying minutes of their monthly meeting this week -- once the TV cameras and print media had left to meet their deadlines -- council voted to break the law.

Quietly, despite vociferous objections from Councillor Mike Del Grande, they decided 21-4 to give their compatriot, Adrian Heaps, a $65,680 salary top-up to pay for his legal expenses fighting a defamation lawsuit launched by his key opponent in the 2006 election. That $65,680 includes $36,000 for the actual legal bills and another $29,680 to cover the tax he'd have to pay on the salary top-up.

Council voted to do so despite strongly worded advice from the city solicitor, Anna Kinastowski, that covering legal expenses of a candidate is "contrary" to the legislation. She told me yesterday the legislation she means is a combination of the Municipal Elections Act, the City of Toronto Act and case law -- and she doesn't believe there's any "grey area" within which to justify payment to someone in his or her capacity as a candidate, not a sitting councillor.

That defamation suit -- brought against Heaps by Michelle Berardinetti -- related to the distribution of a Globe and Mail article published two days before the '06 election that questioned her reputation. Berardinetti, who's married to MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti, lost the Scarborough Southwest ward by a mere 89 votes. Heaps agreed to a settlement.

The city solicitor told council -- upon being questioned by Del Grande -- that the decision "could be challenged" in court and any action would be brought against the city of Toronto, not Heaps himself.

It didn't seem to bother council one bit when Del Grande suggested that Heaps could write off his legal fees on his income tax, eliminating the need to pay him $29,680 for the tax implications.

When questioned, CFO Cam Weldon insisted they solicited an opinion from Ernst and Young and this is the "advice they got" -- namely to pay Heaps' tax costs.

It didn't faze council either when the city solicitor suggested she'd provided advice on four previous occasions that covering the legal expenses of a candidate was illegal -- and they didn't heed her advice.

In fact, council didn't seem to remember -- or chose not to remember -- that they'd already paid out $82,478 a year ago to Heaps to cover his legal fees and the tax costs for a compliance audit undertaken on his '06 election spending (for which he was cleared).

Giorgio Mammolitti was also covered to the tune of $92,276 for the legal fees and tax costs related to a compliance audit from the election. Speaker Sandra Bussin got her own $18,335 payout to defend an action taken against her in the election.

Never mind the illegality of the move. Never mind the optics.

Except for four lone councillors, the 21 who stuck around to set policy and make decisions Tuesday night seemed only concerned with taking care of themselves and their friends on council.

When Del Grande challenged the chairman that the matter should be ruled out of order because it was "illegal," some of his colleagues openly heckled him. Deputy speaker Gloria Lindsay Luby declared that council reigns "supreme" and they'd done it (broken the law) before.

So declared Howard Moscoe, who reminded Kinastowski that she'd given council advice on three other occasions (actually four) and council "has chosen to disregard" that advice.

For his part, Heaps would not comment on council's approval. He told me through his executive assistant, Dianne Hilliard, that this type of ruling is not the first and that there are internal boards of economy at the provincial and federal levels to take care of these kinds of legal issues.

Nevertheless, Del Grande is just heartsick with council's decision.

"We're supposed to be leaders and to provide the example," he said. "It's obscene."

Coun. Doug Holyday, who voted against the payout, called the move wrong, unfair and a total ripoff to taxpayers.

"It's not only terribly wrong," he said. "It's unscrupulous."