Watch the video above: Councillors worried mayor ‘set up’ by Kimmel. Jackson Proskow reports.
TORONTO – Mayor Rob Ford’s trip to California for a late-night appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show might put him at odds with the city’s integrity commissioner.
Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who spearheaded an effort to strip the mayor of his powers, said Monday that when he was offered a plane ticket by CNN to appear on the network, the integrity commissioner told him it would violate the municipal code of conduct act.
Doug Ford told Global News Sunday that the Jimmy Kimmel show provided part of the cost for the trip that brought him, the mayor, their brother Randy and the mayor’s press secretary to California.
Watch: Rob Ford makes brief appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show
But Amin Massoudi, the mayor’s press secretary, said in an email that Kimmel only paid for one dinner.
The city’s code of conduct rules clearly states “no member shall accept a fee, advance, gift or personal benefit that is connected directly or indirectly with the performance of his or her duties in office.”
It’s not clear whether the trip or the alleged dinner partially paid for by the Jimmy Kimmel show qualify as a gift. The integrity commissioner has not confirmed whether the ticket qualifies as a prohibited gift.
Ford said Sunday their main priority while in Los Angeles, apart from appearing on Kimmel, is to promote Toronto as “Hollywood of the north.”
“Everyone we talk to, everyone the mayor talks to, we’re just promoting and pumping Toronto. Advertising on ABC is going at $1.8 million for every 30 seconds and we’re going to get more than 30 seconds I’ll tell you that,” Ford said in the telephone interview. “And if we’ve invited one person, we’ve invited ten thousand people to Toronto and we’re going to continue promoting the greatest city in the world.”
The mayor has run afoul of the city’s code of conduct legislation before. Most notably, in 2010 when the city’s integrity commissioner, Janet Leiper, ruled the mayor had contravened the conflict of interest act by participating in the debate and vote in which he had a financial interest. The vote ended up being taken to court where the mayor was originally ousted from office before that decision was overturned through appeal.
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