Toronto's final council meeting before the fall election lurched along Tuesday with a marathon of member motions and a lengthy debate on what should happen when a councillor breaches the city's code of conduct.
Council pushed to the back burner a request to the federal government to make "O Canada" gender neutral, and refused to debate a motion on ways to prevent children from buying energy drinks.
What council is doing this week is approving a staggering $21-billion of development, though that isn't receiving a lot of attention, Councillor Joe Mihevc said.
"If ever there was a meeting that signified the Manhattanization of downtown (Toronto) it was the approval of 750 storeys of new development, mostly concentrated in the downtown area," he said during a break from voting on motions.
That's 7,000 new condo units in addition to the 70,000 already approved and in the pipeline, he said. "We're not at the end of the cranes in downtown Toronto."
Tuesday's meeting was also dominated with discussion about accountability.
Council voted to receive Integrity Commissioner Janet Leiper's annual — and final report to council, in addition to receiving ombudsman Fiona Crean's report. It came with a warning — and a request for $800,000 to hire more staff.
Unless council funds her office properly, resident complaints will get put onto a waiting list, Crean told council.
Councillors spent more than two hours debating whether to pay the legal fees of Councillor Maria Augimeri's political rival after she was found to have breached the city's code of conduct.
Council decided that Augimeri had properly apologized to Gus Cusimano, who ran against her in 2010, for comments she made last year and that in accordance with city policy the fees should be reimbursed by the city.
In February, Augimeri was quoted calling Cusimano a criminal in the Italian-language newspaper Corriere Canadese. Leiper found those comments breached the code of conduct for council members.
According to a city rule, any complainant who is successful is entitled to have related legal costs, up to $5,000, paid by the city. Where those funds come from is at council's discretion, and Leiper recommended the sum be paid out of council's general expense budget.
On Tuesday, Mayor Rob Ford, a close ally of Cusimano, put forward a motion arguing that Augimeri should pay the legal fees herself.
"I don't see why the taxpayer should have to pay for it," Ford told reporters ahead of the council meeting. "She made an accusation; she was wrong."
After a two-hour debate over the city's policy and whether council has the power to impose such a sanction, Ford's motion was defeated 33-2. Council voted 30-4 to adopt Leiper's recommendations.
Leiper wrote in her report that after a full apology, no further sanctions should be imposed.
The integrity commissioner said this was the first time someone had requested their legal fees be covered under the policy. Leiper said it is now up to the city solicitor to determine what legal costs are reasonable.
Augimeri said she doesn't think the city should be paying Cusimano's legal fees.
"Council's not a libel court and I think taxpayers should not be on the hook for his bill. I think councillors were surprised when they saw that there was a bill to begin with," Augimeri told Torstar News Service.
The city policy is the problem, some councillors argued, and should be changed.
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