Publication date: Jul 05, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 3 min read • 36 comments Councilor Gian-Carlo Carra speaks to the media outside Calgary Council Chambers on Monday, November 1, 2021. Photo by Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia

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Two Calgary councilors were sanctioned by their peers Tuesday after three separate investigations by the city’s integrity commissioner, but one report stood out because of the amount of money involved.

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Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra was the subject of two separate investigations by the commissioner. One found he had repeatedly failed to declare a pecuniary interest in a property in his ward for six years, while another related to his social media activity. Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean was the subject of a single investigation into photos showing him unmasked at a public event in December 2021. Councilors went behind closed doors for several hours Tuesday afternoon before returning to council chambers to vote on releasing the reports and publicly sanctioning the two councilors. Integrity Commissioner Ellen-Anne O’Donnell’s first investigation into Carra focused on a property at 66 New Street SE, a 14,100-square-foot lot with a house that backs up to the Bow River in Inglewood.

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O’Donnell discovered that in 2015, after Carra had been on the city council for more than four years, he and his wife made a $300,000 down payment on the property to the homeowner, whose name has not been released. “There was no written agreement or document of any kind setting forth the terms of the transaction at that time,” O’Donnell wrote in her report’s finding of facts. The commissioner found that Carra worked in 2016 to have certain building restrictions lifted in Inglewood by filing a notice of motion. He said at the time that he had no pecuniary interest, but indicated that he was “planning to build a house.” Carra failed to disclose his interest in the property for another five years, according to the integrity commissioner. At one point, the Carras paid an additional $36,000 for the property.

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He disclosed “an interest in 66 New Street SE in Inglewood” on November 10, 2021, shortly after his re-election in last year’s municipal election. O’Donnell noted in her report a complaint was filed with then-integrity commissioner Allen Sulatyky in May 2016 about the matter, but was dismissed, according to the report. O’Donnell found that Carra breached the council’s disclosure policy and code of conduct and that his breach was of “moderate seriousness”. She accepted his explanation that because he did not write the agreement into a contract and because he and his wife had paid the funds to a management company that held title to the property, he had no financial interest that required disclosure to the city council.

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He also said his cooperation in the investigation was a mitigating factor. The financial issue was virtually not discussed in council once it was made public. The consultants did spend about 45 minutes in total on all three reports. Most of the time was spent discussing Carra’s other issue, which involved tweets about his colleagues working with Coun. Sean Chu in a motion notice. For his disclosure violation, Carra must attend records management and ethics training with the ethics counselor within 30 days. He must also issue a letter of apology to Calgarians. He has been removed from the presidency from any boards, commissions and committees until October 25 of this year, although technically, this sanction was linked to his social media mishaps.

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The commissioner’s report will be treated as a letter of reprimand. Council members, including Carra himself, unanimously agreed to sanctions against him. He left the council chambers after the matter without commenting to reporters and called the council meeting remotely about the rest of the business. Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the council relies on the integrity commissioner to independently investigate complaints against councillors, and that was the case with this case. He said the board was unanimous in its agreement with O’Donnell’s recommended sanctions against Carra, “We rely on this integrity commissioner to give her best advice and she did a thorough investigation,” Godek said. “He really delivered a report on time, which is more than I can say for what’s happened in the past.” Godek said the fact that three integrity commissioner reports came out on the same day should send a message. “What it should say to Calgarians is that we are committed to being transparent. We agreed to have a third party evaluate our conduct. And when a complaint is made, we take it very seriously.” [email protected]: @brodie_thomas

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