http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/01/toronto-mayor-rob-ford-spent-40k-over-the-legal-limit-in-2010-campaign-report-claims/
Darren Calabrese/National Post filesToronto Mayor Rob Ford, centre, leaves his lawyer's office January 25 after winning an appeal of a lower court ruling that ordered him removed from office.
An audit of Mayor Rob Ford’s 2010 campaign spending has found a long list of “apparent” breaches of the Municipal Elections Act, from overspending, to accepting illegal corporate donations and failing to pay for the sound system at his massive victory bash.
On Friday the City of Toronto released the 42-page report of Froese Forensic Partners, who conducted a months-long probe into candidate Ford’s books.
The allegations, if ultimately pushed to a court, could mean Rob Ford is once again fighting for his job, although no other sitting politician in Ontario is believed to have faced such severe sanctions. Still, it would be yet another public and costly legal fight for the embattled chief magistrate.
Among auditors Bruce Armstrong and Glen Davison’s findings: the mayor’s campaign overspent by $40,168, or 3% of the $1.3-million limit; it received $6,000 in donations made by 11 corporations, but listed them as coming from individuals — one $2,500 cheque recorded as coming from former premier Mike Harris, was from his company Steane Consulting Ltd., the auditors allege — and used two family companies to finance the campaign in a way that is not allowed.
The compliance audit committee ordered the probe after Toronto residents Max Reed and Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler alleged a number of election law rules had been broken. The mayor fought the order at first, but then conceded to opening up his books last April. The committee, when it meets at the end of February, can choose to do nothing, or proceed with hiring a special prosecutor to determine if charges should be laid. The penalties range from fines to removal from office.
The auditors said the campaign team co-operated with the audit, and called their records “well maintained, organized and consistent with the requirements of the Act.”
Mayor Ford was not at city hall when the results were released and did not comment.
Councillor Doug Ford, who managed the mayor’s campaign, spoke instead, calling the auditors “very fair” while blaming “special interest groups” for seeking “to kill Rob Ford” politically.
He chalked up much of the over-spending to a different understanding of the rules.
Auditors deemed a number of events listed as fundraisers to actually have been promotional in nature, including one in Scarborough, which cost more than $27,000 and raised $2,920. Promotional events are subject to spending limits, but fundraisers are not.
“Our interpretation is totally different,” said Councillor Ford, who said city staff told the campaign that any event that raised money qualified as a fundraiser.
Maybe they should check every single campaign
“Maybe they should check every single campaign, because if you do a fundraiser, it gets excluded from your expenses. They’re saying, no, it wasn’t excluded because people didn’t know Rob in Scarborough. Well, I’m sorry, people knew Rob in Scarborough.”
Of his decision to pay Wexler Production $35,000 of a $71,167 bill for audio visual at the victory party, Councillor Ford said “I’m not going to get shafted by a vendor that tells me one thing, and gives me an invoice for another.”
The auditors didn’t count that non-payment as part of the expenses that tipped the campaign over the limit, but did say it broke the rules.
If you’re playing football against him, you’d call him a cheater. He’s a cheater
Regarding Doug Ford Holdings and Deco Labels & Tags, the Ford family business, the probe found the companies provided “generous credit terms” to the mayor’s campaign for $197,094.37.
It found the campaign attributed $19,500 to a “Bromell” fundraiser that never took place and that the money was actually raised at a Building Industry and Land Development Association event. When auditors contacted Craig Bromell, former president of the Toronto Police Association, he said he had never hosted, attended or contributed to the Ford campaign. The $25,000 that had been attributed to the BILD event was raised at “or pursuant” to a dinner arranged by Mr. Harris in which Robert DeGasperis, the president of Metrus Properties, met with Mr. Ford and his brother.
In a statement issued by their pro-bono lawyers, Mr. Reed and Mr. Chaleff-Freudenthaler — who had a hand in the conflict of interest case that the mayor recently won — called on the committee to prosecute, citing an “extraordinary number and severity” of apparent contraventions, which they said exceeded 100 in number.
Councillor Adam Vaughan, a Ford critic, called it “petty, silly, stupid stuff” that violates fundraising 101. “If you were playing monopoly, you would call him a cheater. If you’re playing football against him, you’d call him a cheater. He’s a cheater.”
National Post
