Council turned down a bid on Tuesday to scrap its complaint to the integrity commissioner about Coun. Jeromy Farkas.

The complaint, which was originally signed by 14 of 15 council members, related to a social media post Farkas made last month about a council vote on its salary that never actually occurred.

Council members say the post is a violation of council's code of conduct and merits investigation.

Farkas refused to apologize for the post last month and he's still not backing down.

Pay freeze

Council voted Tuesday to freeze its pay for 2019 at the 2018 levels.

There was confusion about competing formulas last month for calculating council's annual pay adjustment.

Farkas said information he had from the human resources department showed that council was on track for a 2.3 per cent pay raise.

The city's chief financial officer said the city's formula showed council was in line for a small pay cut. On that basis, council voted last month against a pay freeze as most members believed salaries were dropping slightly in 2019.

After council voted on Tuesday to freeze its pay for this year, Coun. Sean Chu put forward a motion calling on the integrity commissioner to consider the complaint against Farkas over his Facebook post to be "amicably resolved."

No apology from Farkas

Farkas seemed to say that it was time to let bygones be bygones.

"I'm very committed to putting this behind me and that I think we need to focus on what's the best way forward rather than rehashing what we did at the end of last year," said Farkas.

Coun. Shane Keating was heard saying: "There's no apology."

The fact Farkas didn't say he was sorry or retract his post seemed to agitate council members.

I'm actually begging you to stop with the rhetoric. - Coun. Jyoti Gondek

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said he couldn't support the motion to let the complaint drop because Farkas still doesn't think he did anything wrong.

"What I heard right there was an opportunity for Councillor Farkas to apologize for any unintended manipulation of the situation and there wasn't even that," said Carra.

Carra told council he wants the complaint to the integrity commissioner to go ahead.

Coun. Jyoti Gondek seemed exasperated with Farkas.

"Please, I implore you. Don't make us all look like we can't do good things," she said. "I'm actually begging you to stop with the rhetoric."

Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart said it was clear that the integrity commissioner needs to weigh in and that it's really a straight-forward question for Sal LoVecchio to rule on.

"Let's not get gun-shy now. Let's let this proceed," said the veteran councillor to her colleagues.

A complaint against Coun. Jeromy Farkas is headed to city council's integrity commissioner. (Mike Symington/CBC)

Chu's motion was defeated 13-2, with only Chu and Farkas supporting it.

For his part, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said it would be helpful to council for the integrity commissioner to rule on the matter.

"I think it will help set boundaries that we have been unable to set for ourselves in terms of what is and what is not acceptable behaviour," said Nenshi.

"I would have thought that professionalism and humanity and the need to work together would have set those boundaries for us. They clearly have not."

It is not known when the integrity commissioner will rule on the matter.