Council approves $20,000 toward Mammoliti’s legal fees
Ward 7 (York West) Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti will get $20,000 and not a penny more from Toronto City Council, to pay his legal bills fighting a directive from the city’s integrity commissioner that docked him three months pay this year.
Ward 7 (York West) Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti will get $20,000 and not a penny more from Toronto City Council, to pay his legal bills fighting a directive from the city’s integrity commissioner that docked him three months pay this year.
Mammoliti had been found to contravene the city’s code of conduct for a 2013 fundraiser he held that gained him $80,000 — some of it from lobbyists working with the city.
Mammoliti has applied for a judicial review, and took advantage of a policy at council — one that he himself moved as an amendment in 2007 — that allowed a councillor to be reimbursed for up to $20,000 in legal costs for going for a review, whether the bid is successful or not.
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Mammoliti has spent far more in this matter and had asked that a total of $48,000 be reimbursed.
Council was unsympathetic, and supported a motion from Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong to simply follow the policy.
Minnan-Wong had little sympathy for Mammoliti’s possible financial plight.
"If anyone’s concerned that Councillor Mammoliti is facing serious hardship, we do know he does have that $80,000," said Minnan-Wong during the council debate on the issue.
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It was another councillor, Gord Perks, who pointed out that Mammoliti was the architect of the policy.
"I ask you to turn your attention to the January 29, 2007 council meeting," said Perks. "That amount was never put forward to staff — it was put forward by a member who had foresight: Councillor Mammoliti."
Perks said council ought to take a look at that policy and other indemnification policies that council has approved for itself over the coming months.
City legal staff said Mammoliti could indeed seek reimbursement for legal costs on other matters that might arise from the fundraiser.
On a different legal matter, one concerning the councillor’s overspending and other offences during the 2010 election, Mammoliti plead guilty Friday morning, Dec. 12. Mammoliti will pay back $17,500, after pleading guilty to four of five charges under the Municipal Elections Act connected to spending more than the campaign limits during the 2010 election and filing false paperwork.
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