Integrity report into Nenshi's Uber comments almost complete
Mayor was caught on tape calling company 'dicks' and said city used criminals to test its screening process
Calgary's new integrity commissioner is almost ready to unveil his first report, looking at comments Mayor Naheed Nenshi made in Boston last spring.
Allen Sulatycky said his report is virtually complete, but he wanted to have council approve his terms of reference first, which was done on Monday.
The report examines disparaging remarks Nenshi made about Uber while he was using another ride-hailing service, calling the company "dicks," and saying the city had used people with criminal records to test Uber's driver screening methods.
The comments were caught on tape by Nenshi's driver, and the mayor later said he misspoke, but council asked for a report into the incident.
"I mean he's free to speak about city business as long as it's not something confidential. You know, so I'm not investigating that. The only issue is whether what he said was accurate or not," said Sulatycky.
Clearing the air
Coun. Ward Sutherland said the investigation will determine if the mayor did anything wrong.
"Well, we shouldn't be saying things that are not accurate — knowingly say things that aren't accurate, of course — and should be held accountable if we do so," he said.
Councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart said a public release of Sulatycky's report should clear the air.
"The commissioner's been caught in the cross-hairs here, of not having terms of reference, having a huge incident like this happen, and not only that, it's just not any member of council, it's the mayor of Calgary," she said.
"So I don't envy this man at all. And he's setting a certain benchmark now with the type of report that he's going to release."
The report may be discussed at the next council meeting, the last before council's summer break.
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With files from Scott Dippel