by Klaus Rohrich
May 4, 2004
It’s payback time at Toronto City Hall, as the NDP controlled City Council is exacting its pound of flesh from former Toronto Budget Chief, Tom Jakobek. In recent weeks there has been a lot of innuendo surrounding supposed dirty deals between Jakobek and MFP supersalesman Dash Domi. Most of this was made public by the Inquiry and its lawyers, who are bound and determined to lynch Jakobek in the media.
Last week, Domi’s lawyer, Paul Cavalluzzo rightfully demanded that if there is any evidence of criminal wrongdoing, then the police should investigate and lay charges, if necessary. If not, then stop the smear campaign.
It isn’t as if there’s no precedent for this. Last September the Inquiry stopped to allow a police investigation of Jeff Lyons. Lyons was subsequently absolved of any wrongdoing.
However, Inquiry lawyers didn’t quite see it that way. Ron Manes, the Inquiry’s council, justifies the Inquiry’s activities, including the incendiary and career-ending innuendo appearing almost daily in the Toronto papers. He believes that the Inquiry has a mandate to investigate the banking activities and telephone records of both Domi and Jakobek.
To recap the history of this sordid affair, in 1999 the City of Toronto leased a new computer system through MFP leasing. at the time, Jakobek was Toronto Budget Chief and Dash Domi was the salesperson responsible for the deal. In July of 2000 the lease was re-written, which wound up costing the City of Toronto millions in additional financing charges. The new lease was signed by then City Treasurer Wanda Liczyk, who claims that she didn’t read the lease before signing.
When the media sank their teeth into this scandal, they had a field day. The Toronto Star’s Royston James began an investigative expose. James, who has the same light touch as a German Oompah band, began focussing on Jakobek as the lead culprit. In an effort to determine Jakobek’s guilt, Toronto Star reporter Peter Small ambushed Jakobek with the question whether he had ever attended a hockey game in Philadelphia, compliments of Dash Domi. Stupidly, Jakobek lied to Small and then compounded his stupidity by threatening to sue The Star for libel when it printed a story alleging Jakobek was at that game.
However, while testifying under oath before the commission, Jakobek finally fessed up that, yes, indeed, he had taken that trip to Philadelphia aboard a chartered jet, compliments of the Dashing Domi. The Inquiry lawyers and their NDP masters at City Hall smelled blood and licked their chops. Finally a chance to pay back Jakobek for all his perceived slights and misdeeds, while he served as Budget Chief.
They immediately began leaking damaging information about Jakobek and Domi in an effort to hang the blame on them, thus killing two birds with the same stone. Jakobek gets his, and the City of Toronto (read that NDP-controlled Council) gets off scott-free for letting this happen.
Only problem is there are some points in the timeline that just don’t fit. First of all, Jakobek was out of office, working at Toronto East General Hospital and completing his Master’s Degree in July 2000. So he couldn’t have changed the contract that wound up costing the city so much. Next, there is the "evidence" that Jakobek benefited through MFP-funded initiatives, such as a trip to Disneyworld and a large wad of cash that Domi supposedly gave Jakobek. Inquiry lawyers are claiming that Jakobek booked the trip in November 1999 immediately after the initial lease deal was signed. The fact is that Jakobek booked the trip in January of 1999 and paid for it the next month. In previous years, the Jakobek family had taken several other trips to Disneyworld.
Next is the imputed bribe Domi gave to Jakobek. as proof they offer the fact that Domi took $25,000 in cash out of his bank account and a day or so later, Jakobek paid off his $21,000 amex bill. Sounds pretty suspicious, given that the amounts are nearly the same. While it’s close, it doesn’t rate a cigar. For one thing anyone who has ever had an american Express credit card, knows that the entire balance must be paid off at the end of each month.
I’m wondering how much homework this Inquiry really did. There appears to be a lot of information made public that warrants being protected under this country’s privacy laws. To publicly disclose banking information might grab some nifty headlines, but it certainly doesn’t offer proof of miscreance. I have a question for the Inquiry. Is the $21,000 Jakobek paid on his account an unusual amount of money or were the amounts Jakobek charged to amex relatively similar each month? Did they bother finding this out or were they too busy lynching to care?
The other thing I wonder about is how did they manage to get their hands on all those telephone and banking records. Isn’t that supposedly confidential information, or is that information freely available to lynch mobs wanting to hang an unpopular politician? Finally, the biggest question of all is why is the Inquiry so dead-set against a criminal investigation if there’s so much evidence of wrongdoing? From what I’ve read, it would appear that one is certainly in order. Is it possible that a criminal investigation might prove them wrong, exonerating Jakobek and ruining everyone’s fun?
I believe this Inquiry has cost Jakobek heavily and there’s no end in sight. Last week the Inquiry attempted to subpoena Jakobek’s father-in-law, Ken Morrish, the former Controller of Scarborough. Mr. Morrish, who is 85-years-old and paraplegic, is unable to attend for obvious reasons. Now the Inquiry wants to put Jakobek’s wife on the stand. What next? The kids? The nanny? The dogs?
It is obvious to me that this whole exercise is a McCarthyite rampage. In civics class we learned that we are innocent until proven guilty, which I don’t think the NDPers or the Inquiry lawyers attended. The Inquiry’s lack of interest in a criminal investigation by police says it all. This is a witch-hunt, no more, no less.