An independent audit of Mammoliti’s 2010 campaign expenses found that the York West councillor appears to have exceeded his spending limit by 44 per cent — or $12,065 above the $27,464 limit.
If the special prosecutor decides to lay charges under the Municipal Elections Act — this is a provincial offence, not a criminal one — Mammoliti could face a fine or removal from office.
It’s the latest drama to unfold at city hall, although the players involved have become familiar faces.
Retired teacher David DePoe, who launched the case against Mammoliti, is receiving pro bono legal support from a lawyer working with an organization called Fair Elections Toronto. Councillor Doug Ford would call them the left-wing conspiracy.
It’s the same group that launched a similar challenge of Mayor Rob Ford’s campaign spending. And one of its co-directors, left-wing activist Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, is the man behind the conflict of interest case that nearly ousted Ford.
An appeal court saved the mayor last month, but Ford’s job is once again at risk after an independent audit released last Friday found problems with his campaign finances.
The same firm and auditor that investigated Mammoliti — Bruce Armstrong, from Froese Forensic Partners — concluded that Ford exceeded his $1.3-million spending limit by $40,168, roughly 3 per cent.
Ford will soon face the same panel — and potential consequences — that Mammoliti faced Monday.
These combined cases have left Fair Elections Toronto and its supporters fielding questions about whether they’re out to attack Toronto’s right wing. (Until a recent falling out, Mammoliti has been one of the mayor's most loyal allies.)
Chaleff-Freudenthaler rejects the allegation.
“Fair Elections Toronto looked at all councillors’ expenses and only pursued those we believed may have breached election law,” he said in an email. “As is detailed on our website, Fair Elections Toronto has benefited from extraordinarily talented legal counsel who have donated their time at no cost to enable citizens to hold politicians accountable to election laws.”
Among those lawyers is Paul-Erik Veel, who is acting for DePoe. DePoe says he started investigating Mammoliti’s spending after he received an anonymous phone call from a tipster. Chaleff-Freudenthaler eventually learned about DePoe’s work and hooked him up with Veel.
Afterwards, DePoe said he was pleased the three-member committee made up of election law experts voted to proceed.
“I’m glad that it’s going forward, and I’m glad that it’s become a public issue, and I’m glad that people are taking it seriously that you shouldn’t break the law,” he said.
In his submissions to the committee, the auditor noted that many of Mammoliti’s accounting issues stemmed from the fact there was no in-house accounting expert. Mammoliti began the 2010 campaign as a mayoral candidate, but shifted to the councillor race in July. This created overlapping expenses — such as office rent and fundraising expenses.
Mammoliti’s legal team argued that the standard can’t be for councillor candidates to have financial officers working full time on the campaign.
“I would suggest that a major factor in deciding whether to prosecute is a deliberate flouting of the rules. . . . There’s no indication of that in this case,” Mammoliti’s lawyer, Jack Siegel, argued. “There’s no suggestion of subterfuge, trying to sneak something by.”
To this, committee member John Hollins asked: “So you’re suggesting that the campaign limit is a guideline, versus — ?”
“Yeah, it’s a guideline, it’s a requirement. It’s something that is not to be taken lightly. But if it is exceeded, then one should, before turning it over to prosecution . . . one should take a look at this underlined circumstance,” said Siegel.
Veel countered that, regardless of how the overspending happened, campaigns need to stick within their expenditure limits. The committee appeared to agree.
A City of Toronto spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for details on how the probe will move forward. Mammoliti referred any questions to his lawyers after the vote.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Robyn Doolittle
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