Former councillor gets quick court date
Karygiannis challenging removal from office over campaign spending
Former Scarborough councillor Jim Karygiannis will have his day in court on Thursday in abid to get his council seat back.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Todd Archibald agreed on Friday that the matter should be heard on an urgent basis ahead of the upcoming council meeting on Nov. 26 when the city clerk is expected to report to council on the Ward 22 vacancy.
The judge also granted elector Adam Chaleff intervener status in the matter, meaning his lawyer, Stephen Aylward, can make legal arguments regarding Karygiannis’s request to be returned to office.
A lawyer for the city told the judge they did not plan to crossexamine Karygiannis.
On Nov. 6, city clerk Ulli Watkiss notified Karygiannis that he had automatically forfeited his office for overspending a 2018 campaign limit, as shown in a financial filing he made this October.
That filing showed Karygiannis exceeded the limit by nearly $26,000, largely stemming from a $27,000 dinner he held two months after the election.
That dinner was originally listed in a financial statement filed by Karygiannis as a fundraiser, which is not subject to the limit.
In June of this year, Chaleff filed a successful request to the city-appointed compliance audit committee to review Karygiannis’s extraordinary campaign finances, including the dinner.
In his application filed with the court Tuesday, Karygiannis claims modifications to his filings were made “inadvertently” by his forensic accountant.