While the City of Calgary has already footed the bill for an expensive legal battle between Naheed Nenshi and a prominent homebuilder, the mayor has pledged to pay it all back and he’s looking to fundraise to do it.
Back in November 2013, Cal Wenzel, the CEO of Shane Homes, claimed that the mayor defamed him in return for political gain, citing a radio interview in which Nenshi compared the development mogul to Don Vito Corleone, Marlon Brando's mafia boss character in the Godfather movies.
As a result, Wenzel leveled a lawsuit against Nenshi, claiming $6M in damages.
In December 2015, the lawsuit was settled out of court and Nenshi apologized for the comments. It was not without cost to the mayor, who faced a $300,000 bill for his own defence.
Nenshi always said he planned to pay the costs out of his own pocket, but a city policy prevented him from doing so. The bill was then covered by taxpayers.
Now, the mayor says he wants the ethics commissioner to come up with a policy so he can raise the funds to pay back the city himself.
At the time the lawsuit was settled, Nenshi said there were a number of parties willing to help him come up with the costs.
He contends that if the costs are indeed covered by anyone other than himself, he would release their names and the amount they paid.
