city of toronto integrity commissioner, david mullan
COMPLAINT OF VIOLATION OF CODE OF CONDUCT BY COUNCILLOR FORD
Notice: Municipal Integrity Commissioners provide investigation reports to their respective municipal council and, in most cases, make recommendations for imposition of penalty or other remedial action to the municipal Council. Therefore, reference should be made to the minutes of each particular municipal council to obtain information about the particular council's consideration of each report. When possible, a link to the relevant municipal council minutes is provided.
Please find below the link to the corresponding council decision. https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2007/cc/decisions/2007-12-11-cc15-dd.pdf (see page 153)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SUMMARY. 3
RECOMMENDATIONS.. 3
FINANCIAL IMPACT. 3
ISSUE BACKGROUND.. 3
COMMENTS.. 4
Did the Councillor Violate the Code of Conduct?. 4
What should be done About it?. 4
CONTACT. 5
SIGNATURE.. 5
ATTACHMENTS.. 5
APPENDIX.. 6
SUMMARY
A person complained that Councillor Rob Ford violated the Code of Conduct for Members of Council and Local Boards (Restricted Definition) (“Code of Conduct”) by enclosing a decal promoting a printing company in an invitation to a summer barbecue sent in an envelope bearing his City Hall address and the City of Toronto logo. More particularly, the complainant alleged that Councillor Ford had violated Articles VI (“Use of City Property, Services and Other Resources”) and VIII (“Improper Use of Influence”).
Councillor Ford admitted the facts as alleged and added that he used City Hall return address stickers on twenty to thirty of around six hundred invitations. He had run out of stickers bearing his home address. He also offered to meet with and apologize to the complainant. The complainant rejected this offer and sought a public apology.
The inclusion of promotional material for a business in an envelope bearing a City Hall return address sticker was a violation of both Clauses VI and VII of the Code of Conduct. It involved the use of City property (the logo) for other than the purposes of the Corporation and the Councillor improperly using his status as a Member of Council for the purposes of promoting a business.
Even though this is the second time that Councillor Ford has violated the Code of Conduct in this way, I am not recommending that Council impose any sanction on him. His assumption of responsibility, willingness to meet with the complainant and apologize to him, along with his full cooperation with my investigation convinced me that a public report to Council would be a sufficient sanction.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Integrity Commissioner recommends that:
City Council adopt the finding that Councillor Rob Ford has violated the Code of Conduct; and
City Council not impose any sanction on Councillor Ford
FINANCIAL IMPACT
These recommendations will have no financial impact.
ISSUE BACKGROUND
Councillor Rob Ford holds an annual barbecue in his capacity as a Member of Council. He invites hundreds of people to this barbecue. This year, when processing the invitations, he ran out of return address stickers bearing his home address. For the last twenty or thirty, he used stickers bearing his City Hall address and the City of Toronto logo. The mailing included not only a flyer announcing the barbecue but also a decal promoting a business that prints deco labels and tags.
A member of the public made a formal complaint that this violated Articles VI (“Use of City Property, Services and Other Resources”) and VIII (“Improper Use of Influence”) of the Code of Conduct. These provisions prohibit Members of Council from using the property of the City for other than the purposes of the Corporation and from improper use of influence.
Councillor Ford admitted the facts on which the complaint was based and provided the explanation that he only used the City Hall return address stickers when he ran out of his domestic return address stickers. He also offered to meet with and apologize to the complainant. The complainant rejected that offer and requested that I report the violations to City Council with a recommendation for a public apology.
COMMENTS
Did the Councillor Violate the Code of Conduct?
Councillor Ford’s actions violated the Code of Conduct. In using an envelope bearing the City of Toronto logo and his City Hall office address to mail out an invitation that also contained promotional material for a business, Councillor Ford used City-owned resources (the City’s logo) for other than the purposes of the Corporation. This was a violation of Article VI. He also violated Article VIII. Using one’s position as a Member of Council to influence someone to use a particular business is improper in terms of that provision. The use of the City Hall return address sticker plus the fact that Councillor Ford was sending the invitations out in his capacity as a Councillor associated the enclosed promotional decal with the Councillor and clearly suggested that the Councillor was endorsing the business’s product.
In the circumstances, Councillor Ford was correct in acknowledging responsibility and offering to make amends to the complainant.
What should be done About it?
Despite the fact that Councillor Ford violated the Code of Conduct in a similar manner in early 2005, I was prepared to approve a settlement of the complaint as authorized by section 5(1) of the Complaint Protocol had the complainant been willing to accept Councillor Ford’s offer of a meeting and an apology. However, the complainant with justification asserted that the violations were not personal to him but affected the population of the City as a whole. He therefore requested that Councillor Ford make a public apology.
Given Councillor Ford’s prompt and contrite acceptance of responsibility as well as his initiation of the proposal that he meet with the complainant and apologize to him, I am not prepared to recommend to Council that it request Councillor Ford to apologize as provided for in Article XVIII of the Code of Conduct. While the violations were not trivial in terms of section 12(7) of the Complaint Protocol, I am nonetheless satisfied that a public report to Council without recommendation for any sanction is appropriate in the circumstances.
CONTACT
David Mullan, Integrity Commissioner Phone: 416-397-7770; Fax: 416-392-3840
Email: dmullan@toronto.ca
SIGNATURE
David Mullan, Integrity Commissioner
ATTACHMENTS
Appendix A: Integrity Commissioner Decision on Complaint against Councillor Rob Ford.