Mayoral hopeful Roger Caranci is slamming a fundraiser planned for candidate Matt Brown that is scheduled to be held at the Kingsmill's building in October.
In a statement, Caranci says "A large focus of the Mayoral race is integrity and trust. Agreeing to, promoting and arranging this fundraiser shows a glaring lack of judgment on behalf of Matt Brown and his campaign team...Are these types of arrogant, divisive ideas what we can expect if Mr. Brown was to become Mayor?"
While he goes on to say the Kingsmill's-Fanshawe project "has the potential to be a victory for the City of London," he says it is a divisive issue and the fundraiser will create more resentment and he is calling on Brown to re-locate the event and apologize.
Last week, city council narrowly approved $9 million in funding for Fanshawe College's expansion of its downtown campus into the Kingsmill's building.
But the organizer of the ChangeFest fundraising event, Marcus Ploughman, says the location idea was his and the arrangements were made more than a month ago.
"We approached Kingsmill's about using this venue for ChangeFest a week after the original vote by council."
And Brown says they will not be changing the event's location, "This is a municipal campaign and we're going to follow the rules. My CFO has taken a look at the way this has been organized, he's quite comfortable with it and so am I."
Caranci also says he is concerned that developer Robert Siskind, who is on Fanshawe College's board of governors, is part of Brown's campaign team.
But Brown says Siskind had no influence on his decision regarding Fanshawe, and "Bob is one of our volunteers, of which we have hundreds, and we are pleased to have all of their support."
