City watchdog dismisses citizen complaint against Mammoliti

A city watchdog has dismissed a complaint against Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti over alleged misuse of taxpayerfunded office resources.

Integrity commissioner Valerie Jepson said the city’s rules could be revised to prohibit use of councillors’ office resources to oppose council decisions, but that the current policies were not clear on this.

The ruling followed a complaint in October from resident Tyler Johnson, who saw a member of Mammoliti’s staff assisting the councillor in a personal appeal at the Ontario Municipal Board (now the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal), which deals with most land use planning disputes.

Mammoliti was opposing council’s decision to change the city’s ward boundaries, increasing the total number of wards from 45 to 47. He said he was doing so as a private citizen.

Council voted in November 2016 to approve the new ward boundaries. Mammoliti was opposed. In an April 12 written decision, Jepson explained the code of conduct for council members says city resources must only be used for city business.

But having a member of staff attend the OMB hearing is in a grey area, she found, saying “activities related to the OMB appeal of a ward boundaries decision do not neatly fit into a restricted category.” She noted some city policies suggest it would be against the rules to use city resources to oppose a council decision.

Jepson said Mammoliti’s appeal could be seen as a “pursuit of personal interest.” Mammoliti’s argument, she wrote, was that the appeal was “an extension of his intention to represent his constituents’ concerns and interests.”

In response to earlier questions about the use of his staff member, Mammoliti said in a written response to the Star that those who wanted to “silence” him could “bite me, Mammo-style.”