Using Our Money To Appeal A Court Ruling...

 THE MAYOR

...that says it is against the law for councilors to steal our money to resolve their personal problems.

No wonder taxpayers are fuming

By SUE-ANN LEVY, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: August 26, 2010 6:56pm

Mayor David Miller — the lawyer and Harvard graduate — came out of an in-camera meeting Wednesday night urging his compatriots to vote with their “conscience” to ignore the law.
After he waxed poetic about how he was really doing it for the “public” and not at all for the motley cast of characters who’ve hitched their wagon to his star, councillors voted 24-14 to appeal a recent Ontario superior court ruling that said council didn’t have the power to pay the legal expenses of two city councillors fighting audits of their 2006 election spending.
The court ruling, released July 19, quashed the bylaw that made the legal payouts to Adrian Heaps and Giorgio Mammoliti — of $83,375 and $95,973 respectively — possible.
But that didn’t bother council one bit. Led by the feckless Miller, they simply crafted their own bylaw that would allow the money to be provided to the two councillors in the form of grants.
That motion was merely a technicality since both councillors already have their $179,348 in payouts.
“It is shameful ... we should be upholding the integrity of elections,” Miller said. “We should be ensuring that people aren’t risking their house or their family’s future in order to stand for office and commit public service.”
It’s obvious to me that our so-called “strong” mayor and esteemed lawyer didn’t much like that the Toronto Party for a Better City and Councillor Doug Holyday chose to go to court to fight council’s move to make the illegal payouts — and horror of horrors, won.
The decision Wednesday night should have been a slam dunk — had this council been led by a mayor who actually practises what he preaches about leading with integrity.
(I repeat, is it any wonder taxpayers are mad as hell and not prepared to put up with this nonsense anymore.)
It was all handed to Miller and Co. on a silver platter in the form of advice received by the city’s very pricey outside counsel, Alan Lenczner.
In his confidential Aug. 11 opinion, obtained by the Toronto Sun, Lenczner recommends that the appeal be “abandoned” — noting he does not see a “reasonable prospect” for it to succeed.
City solicitor Anna Kinastowski advises council in her confidential report of Aug. 23, also obtained by the Sun, that it will cost upwards of $40,000 for the appeal and another $25,000 if the city loses and is forced to pay costs.
She does not provide figures on what has been spent on the court case to date.
But Lenczner doesn’t stop with his advice not to appeal. He suggests that while the court could not order the city to retrieve the money from the two councillors, he suggests the city do so anyway.
“The city may grant them time to make the payments but the demand should be made,” Lenczner writes.
In another opinion, provided on Aug. 18, Lenczner says that there is “no lawful bylaw” that can be crafted to address the reimbursement of councillors Heaps and Mammoliti retroactively.
Kinastowski, in her report to council — which she recommended be made public but has not — even gives Mammoliti and Heaps an easy out, suggesting they be allowed to raise the money they need to pay back from private donors!
She writes that the integrity commissioner, Janet Leiper, has offered to be available to spoon-feed them advice on how they can do so while still complying with the gifts and benefits provision of the code of conduct.
Ah, yes. Makes me wonder what she’d say about their appeal for funds using their councillor letterhead.
Seriously, the whole situation is absolutely absurd considering on the very same day (Wednesday) mayoralty frontrunner Rob Ford had his knuckles rapped for using his letterhead to solicit private funds for his football foundation.
Holyday said Thursday this will just keep adding to the city’s legal bills and is a “blatant disregard” of the taxpayer.
“These people seem to think they’re above the law,” he said. “They’re doing all this in aid of their own.”
Murray Maltz, of the Toronto Party, echoed Holyday’s sentiments.
“This is nothing more than an attempt to try to do what the courts have already told them is illegal,” he said.
“Clearly this shows a lack of good faith and continual breach of their fiduciary duty to the taxpayer ... it’s obvious council simply intends to ignore the law no matter what.”
sue-ann.levy@sunmedia.ca
THE VOTE TO APPEAL
YES: Paul Ainslie, Brian Ashton, Shelley Carroll, Raymond Cho, Janet Davis, Glenn De Baeremaeker, Frank Di Giorgio, Mike Feldman, John Filion, Paula Fletcher, Adam Giambrone, Mark Grimes, Pam McConnell, Joe Mihevc, David Miller, Howard Moscoe, Case Ootes, Joe Pantalone, John Parker, Gord Perks, Anthony Perruzza, Kyle Rae, Bill Saundercook, Adam Vaughan.
NO: Mike Del Grande, Rob Ford, Suzan Hall, Cliff Jenkins, Norm Kelly, Chin Lee, Gloria Lindsay Luby, Peter Milczyn, Ron Moeser, Frances Nunziata, Cesar Palacio, Karen Stintz, Michael Thompson, Michael Walker.
MIA: Maria Augimeri, Sandra Bussin, Adrian Heaps, Doug Holyday, Giorgio Mammoliti, Denzil Minnan-Wong, David Shiner

James: Councillors back down on funding legal battles

The city’s executive committee drops a hot-potato issue as lawyers tell them to accept defeat on making taxpayers cover their post-election legal bills.