Appeal in effect
Reinstating Karygiannis seen as bad precedent for election spending
Fair elections advocate challenges Coun. Jim Karygiannis’s reinstatement,
The resident who challenged Coun. Jim Karygiannis’s return to city hall has filed an appeal of his reinstatement in court.
Adam Chaleff filed a notice of appeal Monday after a Superior Court judge ruled that Karygiannis should get his Scarborough-Agincourt seat back.
The councillor was automatically removed from office on Nov. 6 after he filed paperwork for his 2018 campaign that showed he had overspent a strict limit by nearly $26,000. But last Monday, Justice William Chalmers agreed with Karygiannis’s argument that the financial statement had been changed “inadvertently.”
“If left unchallenged, Justice Chalmers’ decision would signal to every local politician in the province that they can overspend with impunity on their election campaigns because they can run to court afterwards to keep their office,” Chaleff said in a news release Monday.
At city hall on Monday, Karygiannis said he was made aware of the appeal by his lawyer.
“I’m just going to wait until my legal team responds and we’ll go from there,” Karygiannis told reporters.
In Superior Court, Chaleff’s lawyer had argued that Karygiannis had not proven the financial statement changes were made in error. In a separate process, Chaleff — a fair elections advocate who has challenged several municipal politicians over their spending — also successfully requested an audit of Karygiannis’s campaign finances in June, a process that is still ongoing pending an appeal by the councillor.
In the notice of appeal filed Monday with the Ontario Court of Appeal, Chaleff — represented pro bono by Stockwoods LLP — asks that Chalmers’ decision be set aside, meaning Karygiannis’s forfeiture from office would stand and he would no longer be a councillor.
The notice goes on to argue that the Superior Court judge erred in ruling that he even had the jurisdiction to return Karygiannis to office, an argument made by Chaleff’s lawyer in front of Chalmers, which the judge rejected.
Karygiannis’s earlier removal from office largely stems from a $27,000 dinner he held two months after the election in
December 2018.
Karygiannis originally listed the dinner as a fundraiser, not subject to campaign limits. Receipts filed with the elections office showed he spent most of that money, over $20,000, on consulting, including $11,300 for “fundraising event services” paid to pollster Nick Kouvalis.
After an audit was ordered, Karygiannis reopened his campaign to raise money for his legal bills. That required him to file a supplementary financial statement with the city.
In that second statement, the $27,000 in expenses related to the dinner were moved to the parties and “other expressions of appreciation” category, subject to a strict $6,120.80 for Ward 22. According to the Municipal Elections Act, anyone who overspends that campaign limit forfeits their office.
“In creating an election finance system that relies on politicians’ honesty, the Ontario legislature was sensible rather than absurd when it set a harsh and unforgiving penalty,” Chaleff said in the news release.