The City of Toronto's integrity commissioner has found that Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti breached the municipal code of conduct by accepting a gift, she said in a report issued Thursday. The councillor plans to appeal the ruling.
Mammoliti breached the city's code when he held a fundraising dinner and dance on May 22, 2013, Janet Leiper wrote in the report.
Tickets were sold at $500 per plate, or $5,000 for a table of 10, and more than 200 people attended, including lobbyists, companies doing business with the city, family members and staff, the report said.
The event company that organized the fundraiser paid the councillor an $80,000 gift from the profit generated by ticket sales. Mammoliti accepted the gift, an action which breached an article of the city's code of conduct, Leiper wrote.
As a result of the investigation, Leiper recommended that Mammoliti forfeit 90 days of pay. Toronto city councillors make $8,678.95 per month, meaning the total amount forfeited over three months would amount to just over $26,000.
Though the total is less than the amount of the gift, it is the maximum penalty available.
In a statement sent out after the verdict, Mammoliti said he'd filed a notice of application challenging Leiper's right to investigate in the first place.
He said that the complaint didn't follow the proper process, and the complainant was not acting in good faith. The complaint was filed by Toronto lawyer Brian Iler in August 2013.
Mammoliti said Iler has openly stated his objection to the councillor's politics in the past.
