The city councillor who chairs the Exhibition Place board — and successfully fought to keep the door open to hosting a massive casino resort on the site — took a taxpayer-funded trip to Las Vegas last July.

Mark Grimes says the main purpose of the five-day, $1,095 visit was to learn about a covered pedestrian mall with dazzling light show he wanted to emulate at Exhibition Place as a link to neighbouring Ontario Place.

The trip charged to city-owned Exhibition Place, however, is described in a travel expense report on next week’s executive committee meeting as: “Meeting with MGM and Caesar Delegations, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.”

Grimes said that’s not accurate, although he did get a private “back of house” tour of MGM’s luxurious Bellagio casino resort on the Vegas strip.

“I don’t know why that’s on there,” Grimes said of the description.

“The purpose of the trip was the Fremont Street Experience,” a five-block entertainment district with light and sound show, zip-lines and more that has helped revitalize the older part of downtown Las Vegas, he said.

“I just put that (casino disclosure) as an abundance of caution because Caesars set up” meetings with Las Vegas officials to talk about the Fremont Street Experience, said Grimes (Ward 6, Etobicoke-Lakeshore).

Grimes said he mentioned the Las Vegas attraction, which he had seen years ago on a private visit, to Jan Jones, Caesars executive vice-president of communications and government relations, while she was lobbying him on the casino issue in his city hall office some time before the July 17-21 trip.

Jones noted she was the Las Vegas mayor when the attraction was unveiled and offered to connect him with civic officials there if he ever visited.

Jones met with Grimes on June 5, 2012, according to the lobbyist registry.

Jim Murren, chairman and chief executive of MGM Resorts, also personally lobbied Grimes. MGM is pushing hard for the right to build a casino-resort at Exhibition Place, which cannot happen unless city council votes to welcome a downtown gambling facility.

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Murren mentioned to him that some union members supporting the casino push were Vegas-bound for a behind-the-scenes tour, Grimes said.

“I said I wouldn’t mind seeing that, so (Murren) said, ‘If you’re down, give us a call and we’ll set it up,’ and I did,” Grimes said, adding the Bellagio tour by an MGM staffer lasted about 90 minutes.

“I got the back-of-house tour — where the uniforms come in, the luxury suites. It was pretty cool, how everybody gets fed, how everything works.”

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Asked what he had hoped to learn, Grimes replied, “The size and scope of what’s going to happen” if he and fellow councillors agree to let a casino operator build and operate a massive resort in the city’s core.

According to the city lobbyist registry, Murren met with Grimes on May 1, 2012.

In Las Vegas, Grimes visited city hall. He had hoped to meet Mayor Carolyn Goodman, but she was chairing a meeting and could only pause to publicly welcome him. However, he did meet with Vegas city staff and others involved in the Fremont Street Experience, he said.

Grimes said he did not talk to anyone from Caesars in Las Vegas and did not know why the travel description, likely written by Exhibition Place’s corporate secretary, mentioned a “Caesar” delegation.

Asked if he received any freebies, Grimes said: “C’mon! No, none. I knew the sensitivity” of the casino issue. “It is all above board and I put this (description) on (the expense form) as an abundance of caution.

“I asked my corporate secretary at Exhibition Place — ‘Don’t put me in an MGM or Caesars hotel.’”

Grimes stayed at Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, which is, in fact, owned by Caesars.

Caesars’ Jones, in an interview from Las Vegas, confirmed Grimes’s account and said her company provided no accommodation. “We wouldn’t do that” for an official with a city considering a casino, she said.

The idea of bringing Fremont Street Experience to Exhibition Place was put in “limbo,” Grimes said, by John Tory’s recommendations in a report on the future of Ontario Place. That report was released days after Grimes returned.

Last week, Grimes told the Exhibition Place board that there is a lot of “fear-mongering” about potential negative impacts of a casino.

His motion to endorse a city manager’s report and not oppose a casino for the site — after a stream of deputants warned a casino would squeeze out the Ex, threaten a big boat show in January and harm the neighbouring Liberty Village neighbourhood — passed 4-3.

Grimes, a council ally of staunch casino proponent Mayor Rob Ford, says he is keeping an open mind on the casino issue and wants more information, including how much the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. would pay the city as a hosting fee.

Councillor Mike Layton, an Exhibition board member fighting to defeat the downtown casino proposal, said he had no idea Grimes had gone to Las Vegas.

“These casino lobbyists have an incredibly long reach,” Layton said. “They know how to sell themselves, and certainly getting folks down to Vegas is one way to do it.

“I certainly think the timing isn’t great, considering both MGM and Caesars have half the lobbyists in the city of Toronto. I’m not entirely sure that’s an effective use of city money.”

Last fall, Grimes was socializing with prominent lobbyist Jamie Besner, whose clients include MGM, and with Councillor Ana Bailão and others at the Thompson Hotel bar before Bailão was arrested for impaired driving.

They have said they did not discuss the casino issue that evening.