Mammoliti awaits fate in campaign overspending

Feb 4, 2013 | News

An audit found Giorgio Mammoliti overspent during his 2010 campaigns for mayor and councillor. He learns today whether the city will bring charges against him. CREATIVE COMMONS COURTESY SHAUN MERRITT ON FLICKR

An audit found Giorgio Mammoliti overspent during his 2010 campaigns for mayor and councillor. He learns today whether the city will bring charges against him. CREATIVE COMMONS COURTESY SHAUN MERRITT ON FLICKR

Compiled by Graeme McNaughton

Less than one week after an audit found Mayor Rob Ford overspent in his campaign, one city councillor will learn if he is to be prosecuted for doing the same.

Giorgio Mammoliti, the councillor for Toronto’s Ward 7, was scheduled to meet with the city’s three-person Compliance Audit Committee on Monday afternoon to learn whether there will be legal proceedings brought against him.

According to an audit by Froese Forensic Partners, Mammoliti made several violations of the Municipal Elections Act.

The report found Mammoliti failed to report costs for office space used at 2958 Islington Ave., north of Finch Avenue, as well as exceeding the costs that the councillor initially submitted for his campaign finances.

The audit found the invoices for advertising and brochures in particular exceeded the totals seen on the expense report.

The Globe and Mail is reporting that David DePoe, the retired teacher who initially filed the audit request, took action after receiving an anonymous phone call urging him to do so.

“I spent a whole day making notes and looking at things and photocopying all kinds of stuff,” DePoe said in an interview with the Globe and Mail. “And I just did some quick math and I just thought, ‘Geez, this is like way overspent.’”

In an interview with the National Post, Mammoliti said he is caught in the middle of an argument between two auditors.

“Speculation can be the worst thing that anyone can go through, and right now everybody’s speculating and saying all kinds of things, but if you look at how simple these two disagreements are by two different auditors, you can see very clearly that it really is about a different opinion between two auditors,” said Mammoliti to the National Post. “It isn’t about the candidate.”

The meeting of the Compliance Audit Committee comes four days after an audit of the mayor’s 2010 campaign finances was released, finding he had exceeded the authorized limit by more than $40,000.

The audit found that a loan made by the Ford campaign by DECO Labels and Tags, a company owned by the Ford family, is in contravention of the Municipal Elections Act as loans can only be taken from “a bank or other recognized lending institution in Ontario”.

Ford is scheduled to meet with the Compliance Audit Committee on Feb. 25.