Ward 9 Council. Gian-Carlo Cara said he was going to apologize to Calgaryen after being admitted to not disclosing his financial interest in Inglewood’s estate for six years.
Calgary’s integrity commissioner, Ellen-Anne O’Donnell, investigated a complaint from 2021 and found that Cara failed to include the property on her disclosure form, which all city councilors are required to do.
“I screwed up,” Kara told Global News. “It was a paperwork ‘snafu.’ I don’t interface well enough with that piece of paper.”
According to the integrity commissioner’s report, Cara and his wife made a $300,000 down payment on the home in 2015, but there was “no written agreement or documentation of any kind” setting out the terms of the transaction.
The integrity commissioner found that the payment had “crystallized a financial interest in the Inglewood property, or at the very least, a financial holding relating to the Inglewood property.”
O’Donnell found that Cara had five separate opportunities to disclose assets between 2016 and 2021.
Ward 9 councilor said the original plan was to tear down the duplex on the property and build two houses in which a caras would remain, but the deal began to fall through.
He said he and his wife invested another $36,000 in the remainder of the property to “save their investment.”
Cara updated its financial disclosure form to include Inglewood’s assets after the 2021 municipal election.
The investigation found that Cara had publicly disclosed her interest in Inglewood’s property to the city council and recused herself from voting on a notice of motion to lift restrictions in the community.
He said he felt he was “open and honest about everything” throughout the process and that “everybody knew” his plans for the property.
According to Kaira, the development permit process was handled by the office of the then mayor, Naheed Nenshi, and not by the Ward 9 office.
There was also a protracted legal battle regarding development permit approval for the property that was heard and upheld by the Land and Property Rights Tribunal of Alberta. An appeal was also dismissed in the provincial court earlier this year.
“When you’re fighting with your neighbors and they’re at the end of the day spending thousands and thousands of dollars to block you politically and financially for things that are totally copecitic, it’s emotionally It’s dry,” Cara said. “That’s no excuse, I should have written on paper.”
As part of the sanctions against him, Carrara must write a letter of apology to Calgarians for failing to comply with the disclosure policy and attend training with an ethics advisor within 30 days – sanctions said. accepts.
Last week, Ward 2 County. Jennifer Winess expressed that she wants the Integrity Commissioner’s investigation to be forwarded to the province and the Calgary Police Service, a discussion that is expected at the July 20 meeting of the Executive Committee.
Cara said he has not commented on the intentions of his council colleague.
But the representative of Ward 9 says that there was no disturbance and they think the matter has been resolved.
Cara told Global News, “Any allegation that this was not being done very clearly in the public eye, that it was not discussed in council, that I was not officially disassociating myself , that there was no official document,” is incorrect. “I haven’t written it yet He piece of paper, and I’m sorry for that.”
According to Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, the situation raised “alarm bells” because of the working relationship between municipal politicians and developers, and that disclosure forms are important to avoid any apparent conflicts of interest.
“The biggest scams in municipal politics are deals involving property, zoning, bylaws, councillors, developers, and immediately he’s caught in the middle of that,” said Bratt. “It’s not like someone who has just been elected and was unsure of the disclosure rules. This is someone who has been on the council for over a decade.”
Cara said he plans to apologize during a city council meeting on July 26.
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