Toronto city councillor says he ignores bylaw infractions if ‘they vote for us, they’re volunteers and they donate money’

Thestar.com
February 10, 2020
Jennifer Pagliaro

In a recording made shortly after Toronto’s 2018 election, Coun. Jim Karygiannis is heard aggressively policing his own constituents over alleged bylaw violations.

Those who supported him politically, he tells an aide, should get a pass.

“There’s houses that we bother, houses that we don’t bother,” Karygiannis, who represents Scarborough-Agincourt, can be heard saying in the secretly made recording.

“Because they’re friendly”

“What constitutes if we don’t bother them? They vote for us, they’re volunteers and they donate money.”

The recording was made over nearly two hours on Nov. 12, 2018 by Kevin Haynes, who was volunteering for Karygiannis at the time and was later hired in the councillor’s constituency office.

“If I feel like an a**hole”

Near its start, Haynes asks Karygiannis to elaborate on who does and doesn’t get reported. “If I feel like an a - -hole, f- -k ’em,” Karygiannis replies.

Two years before the recording was made, Karygiannis was scolded by the city’s integrity commissioner after he confronted residents about possible city rule-breaking in two separate cases.

In one of those cases, Valerie Jepson wrote, Karygiannis’s actions --which included taking numerous photos of a woman’s car improperly parked in her family’s driveway and approaching her father in public --were not only “shocking” but “led to a reasonable belief that the separation between elected officials and enforcement had been blurred and accordingly damaged the trust and confidence that the complainant and her family had in the institution of the city of Toronto.”

Karygiannis also reported the specific address and street to Toronto police for parking enforcement, according to the integrity commissioner.

The Star is not aware of any investigation stemming from events in the 2018 recording.

In a written statement to the Star, Karygiannis characterized his behaviour in Haynes’s recording as “tough talk” that he understood to have been spoken in private.

He also said Haynes had “his own motivations for the leading questions he asked.”

“I believe it would be wrong to draw any conclusions from this recording other than that I care deeply for my constituents and my ward,” Karygiannis wrote.

“My passion for serving the constituents of Ward 22 has not wavered and I am committed to my ongoing efforts to serve my constituents to the best of my ability.”

On the recording, Karygiannis can be heard interacting directly with residents, questioning them on how cars are parked and whether businesses are being run out of home garages. The councillor documents alleged bylaw violations by taking photos --or instructing Haynes to --that are apparently to be sent to bylaw enforcement. Haynes said he didn’t know if any of the alleged violations referred to on the recording were actually reported to the city’s bylaw enforcement team or elsewhere.

Bylaw enforcement works largely on a complaint basis in Toronto, with officers typically dispatched after complaints from neighbours. City councillors are not required to police their wards for possible infractions.

The recording captures Karygiannis referring to some residents as “a - -holes” within the privacy of his vehicle. However, it also documents several interactions in which he is heard exchanging pleasantries with constituents, who seem glad for his help with issues affecting their property and supportive of his election win.

During the recording, which was made as the councillor drove his own black Jeep, Karygiannis doesn’t always identify himself as a city councillor to those with whom he speaks. (It’s not clear if all of the residents approached would recognize their local representative, although some apparently do without an introduction.)

He explains to Haynes that it will be his role to drive around recording possible violations in a different “quadrant” of the ward every week.

The recording starts with Haynes asking if he should be going through “the database” to see if those to be reported are “a - - holes.” Haynes is the first to use that word on the recording.

“I know where the a - - holes are, but you go through the database, take the pictures, bring them in and before you send them off, take a look --if they voted for us, if they didn’t. If they voted for us and we see them that they’re constant idiots, we send it in,” Karygiannis says.

“If they didn’t vote for us,” he adds, laughing, “we send it in, twice the pleasure.”

“Twice the pleasure”

Councillors don’t have access to data confirming how residents voted in an election, but it’s not uncommon for them to keep track of their constituents. Campaigns typically record information about voters and their voting intentions when knocking on doors. Under election rules, council candidates are required to keep track of and report who has donated to their campaigns.

Haynes could not confirm whether Karygiannis’s office reported any of the alleged infractions to the city for enforcement.

In the recording, Karygiannis tells Haynes to be “nice, calm, not aggressive” when speaking with constituents, and to identify himself as a staffer.

Karygiannis also offers tips for spotting illegal rooming houses: a person coming out of a side door, numerous bikes at the side of a home, dilapidated roofs and lots of garbage out front.

In one encounter, the sound of a car window rolling down can be heard after Karygiannis identifies an address on a small street in his ward.

“Fellas, how you doing?” he calls out. “Are you running a business over here?”

A man answers, “No, why?”

“Well, I don’t know. I’m seeing welding material and all that stuff,” Karygiannis replies.

After several seconds of silence, he continues, “All right, fellas, you can choose to ignore me. That’s fine.”

A sound of a photo being taken can be heard.

“Good day!” Karygiannis says, before the car is heard pulling away and the window is heard winding up.

“For him, you do it with pleasure,” he tells Haynes, “because he’s an a - - hole.”

“You asked him, you know, and he said, ‘No, why?’ Ignored me. That’s fine ... Fellas, there’s a new sheriff in town.”

“There’s a new sheriff in town”

Karygiannis reads out the address, then says, “Running a welding shop out of the garage. Let bylaw officers deal with it.”

Stopping a few minutes later, Karygiannis asks a man if the nearby residents are running a “welding shop” and if it’s happening almost every day.

“I think so,” the man says.

Karygiannis replies, “Life’s a b - - - h and you got a new councillor. Life’s a total b - - - h ... We’ll take care of that one, don’t you worry about it.”