Mayor Rob Ford, under criticism for outsourcing the printing of business cards for himself and his staff to his family’s printing firm, now says he will repay the city.

Ford’s press secretary Adrienne Batra told reporters Monday that Ford will give the city clerk’s office a cheque for $1,579.15 to cover the cost of 20,600 business cards printed by Deco Label & Tags.

Ford’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, defended the outsourcing as recently as Sunday, saying critics were “picking small hairs” when they should focus on money the mayor saved the city by getting councillors to reduce their office budgets and his own.

The clerk’s office said Tuesday morning that Ford’s cheque had not yet arrived.

The Star revealed Friday that Ford outsourced the printing to the firm owned by his family, and directed the city to pay the invoice from his office budget.

The cost to taxpayers for the gold-embossed, double-sided cards — 7 cents per card for the first 15,000 and 6.205 cents for the next 5,600 — is up to four times higher than that paid by councillors for basic blue-and-white business cards made by the city.

Ford, famous for criticizing councillors over their office expenses and for handing out business cards wherever he goes, was pilloried on social media and in published commentaries for the purchase.

Chris MacDonald, a visiting scholar at the University of Toronto’s Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics, said the mayor directing city business to his family company is “an actual, bona fide conflict of interest.”

Writing on the Canadian Business website, MacDonald said that, while the dollar amounts are small, “what’s at issue in conflict of interest matters is the need to protect the integrity of the institution, and in particular the way key stakeholders perceive its decision-making processes.”

Under the city’s expense policy, councillors can choose an outside printer. There doesn’t appear to be an explicit rule against directing the business to a firm in which they have an interest.

Contacted last week, Janet Leiper, the city’s integrity commissioner, declined to comment because it’s possible she may be asked to look into the situation.