A special meeting has been called by Calgary’s mayor in light of the recent disclosure of closed-door budget information to local media.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas posted the meeting notice to Facebook with it providing notice of a Special Meeting of Council to begin at 9:45 a.m. on Sept. 8.
There is already an Executive Committee meeting scheduled for 9:30 a.m. that day, and presumably they will suspend that meeting to the call of the chair, pending the conclusion of the special meeting.
The meeting was called to allow the City of Calgary’s solicitor’s office to provide legal advice on the unauthorized disclosure of 2027 to 2030 budget information.
LWC and Global Calgary both broke stories on city council’s closed-door recommendation to city administration to prepare a budget scenario that called for a 42.5 per cent property tax revenue increase over four years.
Later, Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston posted to social media that he leaked the material to media because he couldn’t be complicit in “hiding things” from Calgary taxpayers.
On Friday, Mayor Farkas posted that he consulted with members of council and the city solicitor on the Sept. 8 special meeting.
“I have reasonable grounds to believe that a serious privacy breach may have occurred, posing potential safety risks to City personnel and significant financial or legal exposure,” he wrote on Facebook.
“The meeting will be held in order for Council to hear immediate legal advice on the potential damage, our obligations, and what action is required to protect employees and taxpayers.”
On Thursday, Johnston had acknowledged there was a movement afoot to remove him from office.
“The mayor’s going around sending text messages asking other councilors for support, making it about safety,” Johnston said.
“This guy’s manufactured crises this entire council about me, all unfounded, and at this point I’m just done. I’m tired of it.”
Mayor Farkas refuted Johnston’s claims of a text message chain around his removal from office.
“I have not seen anything like that,” he told reporters.
Under the MGA, if there was an actual code of conduct for elected municipal officials (removed by the province in 2025), a breach of that code — which includes divulging privileged information — cannot be grounds for dismissal from council.
