

Chris Fox, CP24.com





City council has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion to accelerate the preliminary research on Mayor John Tory’s SmartTrack proposal with Rob Ford casting the sole vote against.

The 42-1 vote means that City Manager Joe Pennachetti will now be required to provide an “accelerated work plan” for a review of SmartTrack, including the required planning, environmental assessments, business case analysis, and timelines.

The work plan is to be presented at the next meeting of executive committee on Jan. 22.

A total of $750,000 has been authorized to conduct the various studies that are needed.

“I am on a seven-year timetable,” Tory told reporters earlier on Thursday. “The people expect this to be done in seven years because that is what I said I would do, so I want to keep it moving forward.”

During the debate over Tory’s motion on Thursday, Ford rose on a number of occasions to raise his objections, at one point suggesting the discussion essentially boils down to streetcars versus subways.

It should be noted that Tory’s $8-billion SmartTrack plan will rely primarily on retrofitting and electrifying existing GO Transit lines and will not involve light rail transit vehicles on roadways, as Ford seemed to suggest.

“It is streetcars or it is subways. People are going to say ‘no it’s not’ but it is. That is what the debate was about and that is what the debate will continue to be about for the next 10 or 20 years,” Ford said. “If you support this Eglinton west of Royal York Road will be dug up. People don’t want that. St. Clair (Avenue), Finch (Avenue), Sheppard (Avenue) it will all be dug up for these fancy streetcars.”

Though Ford was the only member of council to vote against Tory’s motion, Coun. Janet Davis did stand to announce that her support should not be taken as an endorsement of SmartTrack.

Council tweaks procedures to allow Tory to have four deputies

The debate over SmartTrack was not the only thing on the agenda Thursday as council held their first real meeting after last week’s largely procedural get-together.

Earlier in the day, council voted 37-1 in favour of a motion to amend their procedures and allow Tory to have four deputy mayors representing the four regions of the city as opposed to one.

As part of the vote, council also supported a requirement that Tory appoint one of those deputy mayors, Denzil Minnan-Wong, as the person responsible for performing "the roles and functions assigned to the deputy mayor elsewhere in the Council Procedures and the Municipal Code."

Ford was also the only one to vote against that motion.

Mammoliti’s legal fees will only be partially reimbursed

In a 32-6 vote council late Thursday afternoon council also decided that it will not reimburse Giorgio Mammoliti for legal bills exceeding $20,000 in his fight against a code of conduct ruling.

Mammoliti was docked three months pay by council in July after the integrity commissioner ruled that he violated city rules by accepting $80,000 raised during a 2013 fundraising dinner.

The Ward 7 councillor then launched legal action in August, racking up $48,476.12 in legal bills, of which $14,831.25 has already been refunded by the city.

The matter esd brought to council because city rules only cover the automatic refund of up to $20,000 in legal bills related to code of conduct complaints and staff said they were “seeking direction” on whether to “pay all, part of, or none” of Mammoliti’s latest invoice as well as how to handle any future invoices.

“I can’t speak to much of this because it is in the courts but I can say that what is in front of council is a policy that exists already. It gives anyone of us the ability to challenge any report from the integrity commissioner and to appeal them, as I have chosen to do,” Mammoliti told CP24 earlier on Thursday. “It is ironic that we are sitting here debating whether or not mine should be covered and not the integrity commissioner’s expenses. I believe she has already spent more than I have but she doesn’t have to report to council.”

In her ruling against Mammoliti, Integrity Commissioner Janet Leiper said that it cannot be said that his breach of the code of conduct was in good faith given the “available evidence.”

Leiper also noted that the “quantum of the breach” made a harsher penalty necessary.

Speaking with CP24 at city hall on Thursday afternoon, Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong said that he believes most councillors agree with Leiper’s ruling.

“There is a council policy where if any councillor wants to use judicial review on an integrity commissioner matter there is a maximum amount of $20,000 that can be used for those costs and I am suggesting that we don’t increase that number,” he said. “The councillor has a bigger legal bill and I think members of council don’t want to recognize that given the fact that he had a fundraiser where he raised north of $80,000. Members of council look rather dimly on another member of council going out and having a fundraiser to raise money for himself.”

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