At a joint noon-hour campaign event on Monday, Karen Stintz, Olivia Chow and John Tory were joined by campaign aides. David Soknacki was represented by his campaign manager.

And Rob Ford was accompanied by his city hall chief of staff, who is paid by taxpayers.

“Anything else?” Ford said when asked why Dan Jacobs was there.

Under city rules, taxpayer-paid aides are allowed to work on their bosses’ campaigns “as long as it is outside of their work hours,” said city spokeswoman Jackie DeSouza. “This can be the evenings of work days, weekends, their vacation time or if they take leaves of absence.”

This event — a CityTV speaking-order draw for Wednesday’s televised debate — was held at mid-day on a weekday. And Jacobs said he is not working on the campaign at all.

“I’m part of the mayor’s staff,” he said when asked to explain his presence.

Soknacki’s campaign manager, Brian Kelcey, said Jacobs’s appearance at the studio was inappropriate. He said he himself took an unpaid leave of absence from the mayor’s office in Winnipeg when he went to work for a councillor’s campaign.

“Yes, the mayor needs to be staffed. But if he’s being staffed at a campaign event, the only appropriate use of taxpayer resources for his campaign is — not at all,” Kelcey said. “He needs to have a volunteer or campaign-paid staffer with him at all times if he wants to actually live up to his ‘respect for taxpayers’ mantra in an election period.”

Ford’s campaign is being managed by his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, who has not identified any other staffers. Asked in February who is part of the team, Doug Ford said, “The people.”

Rob Ford has been repeatedly accused of misusing his staff as mayor. Several aides assisted him with his former volunteer football coaching position and with his football foundation, and police investigating him over unrelated matters were told that he had aides buy alcohol for him and perform menial tasks at his home.

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