Mayoral candidate David Soknacki has filed a freedom of information request at city hall to determine if Mayor Rob Ford has been using his staff for campaign-related activities, which is strictly prohibited under the City of Toronto code of conduct.
Brian Kelcey, campaign manager for Soknacki, filed a request with the city clerk Tuesday morning after discovering several unidentified communications that suggested that Ford and his staff may have used the mayor’s office for campaign-related purposes.
“We believe that there is reasonable cause to suspect or at least inquire as to whether there are campaign activities that are taking place or campaign conversations taking place in the mayor’s office,” Kelcey told reporters at city hall on Tuesday.
The code of conduct prohibits the mayor and members of council from participating in campaign-related activities on city property or using city resources to organize an election campaign.
Kelcey said the request covers schedules, briefing notes, memos and email interactions exchanged between Ford and members of his staff between Jan 3. and Feb 18.
The request specifically focuses on communication between Ford and key staffers including Chief of Staff Dan Jacobs, Special Assistant of Communications Amin Massoudi, Manager of Protocol and Events Victoria Colussi and Policy Adviser Christine Maydossian.
“We wanted to make it as broad a search as possible so that if it becomes necessary, ultimately other observers can be the fair judge of whether or not resources were being appropriately used,” Kelcey said.
Rob Ford has yet to respond to the allegations, but his brother and campaign manager Coun. Doug Ford dismissed the claims on Tuesday, suggesting that Soknacki’s team is simply nervous about upcoming elections in October.
“He’ll find out when he does the FOIs,” Ford told CP24 shortly after the request was filed.
“I guess David Socknaki is getting a little nervous,” he said.
With files from CP24
