The city’s integrity commissioner has ruled that Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti broke the code of conduct by accepting $80,000 raised by a fundraising dinner in his honour and is recommending that council suspend his pay for 90 days as punishment.

The $500-a-plate dinner held last May was organized by Mammoliti’s son Michael and billed as a chance to help the Ward 7 councillor “continue to fight the good fight at city hall” in invitations distributed to invited guests, which included lobbyists and a number of companies who either possess or have bid on contracts with the city in the past.

In her 30-page decision, integrity commissioner Janet Leiper said that by accepting the profits from the event Mammoliti violated Article IV of the code of conduct, which prohibits members of council from accepting any gifts related to the “performance of his or her duties.”

In choosing to recommend that council suspend Mammoliti’s pay for three months, Leiper opted for the most severe penalty available to her. The only other available penalty for violating the code of conduct is a formal reprimand from council.

Leiper’s investigation and recommendations is, however, subject to a court challenge after Mammoliti sought a judicial review in divisional court.

“I recommend that council consider an appropriate sanction for the breach of the code of conduct. A number of considerations may be taken into account, including the quantum of the breach. The amount of the gift is significant, being 160 times greater than the maximum allowable personal gift to a member of council within the recognized exceptions,” Leiper wrote. “Second, it cannot be said on the available evidence to date that the breach was a good faith breach. The councillor was copied on certain key pieces of correspondence about the event after his return to work from his health issue.”

Mammoliti says he had no involvement with dinner

The dinner was held two weeks after Mammoliti returned to work after undergoing a series of emergency brain surgeries and the councillor told CP24 on Thursday afternoon that it was organized without his knowledge to help celebrate his return to good health.

“I did not host any fundraising dinner. I showed up as an invitee,” he said. “My family had put together a letter inviting people to come and enjoy life with me as I was getting better. I wasn’t in any state to host anything.”

Despite Mammoliti’s denial of being involved in organizing the dinner, Leiper said that several of his staff members were involved in the planning stages. Leiper also said that one security company employee wrote to staff, informing them that “Giorgio said he didn’t want any media at the event.”

Following her investigation, Leiper did contact Mammoliti’s officer to request that he pay back the $80,000 but she said she did not hear back from the councillor.

“I’ve got this in court now so I can’t really speak to some of the issues that have come up but I can tell you this: over the last number of months we have had to look at how the integrity commissioner has been conducting this investigation and I can tell you that I haven’t spoke to her once and she hasn’t spoken to any of the principals who ran the event once,” Mammoliti told CP24. “I am concerned about the report the way it stands. I haven’t even seen it. She hasn’t sent it to me.”

CP24 did ask Mammoliti whether he accepted the $80,000 gift but he refused to answer the question.

“I assure you that I didn’t break any code of conduct,” he said.

If council votes to accept the proposed sanction, Mammoliti will be docked about $26,000 in pay.

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