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Up now: should Councillor Chris Moise get reimbursed for $20,807.61 worth of legal costs he incurred during an Integrity Commissioner investigation, which resulted in a report that was NOT adopted by council? Moise leaves the room so his colleagues can discuss. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

Council quickly loses quorum while asking staff questions about the reimbursement issue. "It seems like councillors don't want to sit down," complains Nunziata. After ringing the bells for a while, enough people come back.

Councillor Pasternak asks the Integrity Commissioner if perhaps this whole Moise issue could have just been resolved with an apology. The Integrity Commissioner is not in the chamber, though, so the answer is unknowable. This debate is going great.

The Integrity Commish does eventually show up. But Nunziata then rules the apology question out of order, so the Integrity Commissioner cannot answer Pasternak's question. Okay then.

Nunziata explains that council has already debated and voted on the Integrity Commissioner report re: Moise — rejecting the finding that Moise breached the code of conduct — so questions about the investigation aren't relevant. Councillors need to focus on the repayment issue only.

Councillor Holyday rises to move to take no action on the report, denying Moise reimbursement for legal costs beyond the $5K he already received. ...But the clerks don't have his motion. He says he submitted it yesterday. An exasperated Nunziata declares a five-minute recess. Shambolic.

After a 12-minute-long five-minute recess, they get things sorted. Holyday moves to RECEIVE the item, which means taking no action on it. If this passes, Moise will get no reimbursement for legal costs beyond the $5K he's already received.

Councillor Burnside moves to reduce the amount Moise would receive, so he'd get 50% of his legal costs rather than the full amount.

"For me, as a steward of public funds, I would have never gone and spent $23,000 more [in legal costs] and put council in this position," Burnside explains, criticizing Moise for racking up the legal bill in the first place.

Councillor Paula Fletcher moves to delete the $5K threshold for eligible legal reimbursement, saying the amount dates all the way back to 2008 when... quite a few current councillors were around, actually.

On questioning, Fletcher says the second part of her motion — which would make the Moise claim eligible for reimbursement under her motion's amended policy — was included by mistake. She agrees to remove it.

Fletcher says the effect of her motion is that councillors would now have a $20K limit on reimbursement for legal costs, as per existing City Clerk policy.

Councillors are struggling to understand Fletcher's motion, which is making her quite mad. "I'll just withdraw my motion, because no one understands it!" she declares.

"I think this simply gives us a chance to hire legal counsel, to get advice, to speak to the Integrity Commissioner on our behalf, without coming here on broken glass bending for something more than a 2008 number!" says Fletcher. "But I'm happy to withdraw it if you want me to!"

Councillor Anthony Perruzza lays out a hypothetical scenario in which he puts a shoplifter in a "headlock", and then that shoplifter complains to the Integrity Commissioner. He would then need to hold a fundraiser to pay his legal costs, he explains.

"I could go to a Canadian Tire, chase some guy in a parking lot, tell him I'm going to kick his ass all over the parking lot!" thunders Perruzza. "Now what am I faced with? Charges, and an Integrity Commissioner complaint!"

Anyway, Councillor Stephen Holyday's motion to NOT reimburse Councillor Chris Moise for any additional legal costs related to an Integrity Commissioner investigation FAILS 6-16.

Councillor Burnside's motion to cover just 50% of Moise's legal costs CARRIES 16-6.

Fletcher's motion to remove the $5K threshold for automatic reimbursement of councillor legal costs related to Integrity Commissioner investigations CARRIES 18-4.

On an item about revisiting minimum parking requirements for Scarborough, Councillor Jamaal Myers moves to remove his ward from a clause that could prohibit new developments from requesting on-street parking permits. That CARRIES. So does the item. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

Holyday says the majority of people he's heard from oppose the shelter, and so he's opposing it. He moves to reduce the allowed height under the zoning from 19 metres to 15 metres.

"The proposal that I have here right-sizes the zoning to the building," says Holyday of the women's shelter. He says the current process of bringing this shelter forward has led to mistrust in the community.

Holyday explains that even if his motion to reduce the permitted height of the shelter passes, he will still oppose the shelter item because that's what his community has asked him to do.