Former city councillor Rob Davis says councillors Josh Matlow, Brad Bradford and Anthony Perruzza, and MPP Mitzie Hunter should refund their paycheques from the time they registered to run for mayor. The city councillors should have taken an unpaid leave of absence from their jobs as City Councillors while they run for Mayor of Toronto.
“Running for mayor is already a fulltime job. They can’t possibly do their job as elected officials and taxpayers should not be subsidizing their run for mayor. This mean that some candidates are riding the gravy train while taxpayers are on the hook,” said Davis.
“These candidates should return the combined $150,000 in pay and benefits they will receive while campaigning for mayor.”
In a previous media release Davis noted, “When I ran for MPP, I refused my city councillor paycheque even though I was not required to by law. More recently, Councillor Shelley Carrol resigned her councillor position to run for MPP in 2018, even though she wasn't required to under the Act. This is the gold standard of behaviour in a situation like this. I am shocked that none of the three city councillors or the one MPP have not done so already, since they are officially registered and actively campaigning.”
"The current Municipal Act is silent on the matter of resignations for sitting members of council, however MPPs and MPs must resign in order to be eligible to run. Mitzie Hunter is still being paid by taxpayers.”
“Additionally, elected officials have a compliment of staff who will be tempted to “volunteer” during business hours while on the taxpayers dime. Let’s remove the temptation,” said Davis.
“Taxpayers expect and deserve the utmost in integrity from their elected officials. They also want fairness in their elections. We know potential donors with issues that are being considered by city council in the next few weeks will feel pressure to make hefty financial contributions out of fear of sitting council members. The least complicated option would be for councillors to resign their seats. But only a candidate who truly believes they will win would do that.”
