Newly revealed internal documents indicate that Rob Ford’s city hall staff were co-ordinating matters related to the mayor’s re-election campaign, in a possible violation of municipal rules.
The documents were obtained by former mayoral candidate David Soknacki through a freedom of information request and were made public on Friday.
City hall staffers are not permitted to work on political campaigns while on the city’s payroll. Emails, memos and other briefing notes published Friday indicate that mayoral staffers were in some instances, handling campaign-related matters:
- One email exchange shows Amin Massoudi, the mayor’s former press secretary, advising the city’s integrity commissioner that the mayor’s office will “distance itself” from the Ford Nation Youtube show, because it was a “Mayor’s Office Initiative.” The revelation indicated that the online campaign show had previously been organized by city staffers.
- In another email exchange with a news reporter asking about the mayor’s possible appearance at a downtown nightclub, Doug Ford responded personally by writing that every stop the mayor makes is “an election stop.”
- In another email, a mayoral staffer advises Massoudi and Dan Jacobs, the mayor’s chief of staff, that a producer from Los Angeles has an “idea for a campaign show.”
- Other files show that a campaign-related meeting was referred to Coun. Doug Ford’s city hall office.
In a statement posted on his website on Friday, Soknacki said the documents show that taxpayer-funded “staff and resources were used regularly by the Mayor, campaign manager Doug Ford and his associates to further his personal, private campaign goals, in violation of City rules for the use of those resources.”
The freedom of information requests filed by the Soknacki campaign were paid for with donations.
Speaking with reporters in North York Friday afternoon, Doug Ford denied any suggestion that city staff or resources were being used for campaign purposes.
“That’s just the furthest from the truth, “ he said, later adding that people are “allowed to work on their own time.”
Rob Ford joined the mayoral race earlier this year, but dropped out in September following a cancer diagnosis. He is now seeking his old Etobicoke council seat.
Coun. Doug Ford, the mayor’s former campaign manager, is now seeking the city’s top political job.
Fords slapped with lawsuit
Also on Friday, news surfaced that the Ford brothers are facing a new legal challenge.
A Toronto resident has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Fords broke the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act by failing to declare conflict of interest on city council votes and debates involving clients of their family business.
Doug Ford said Friday that the lawsuit is a “political witch hunt.”
