As we near municipal election day, there seem to be some political games being played in Windsor's Ward 3.
Candidate Helmi Charif has filed a complaint with the city's integrity commissioner against incumbent, Rino Bortolin — claiming Bortolin misled voters about the existence of a $2.5-million fund.
"There is no such fund, council voted it down," says Charif.
The issue with that statement, is that the fund does exist — according to City Treasurer Joe Mancina.
"Council has set aside as part of the 2018, six year capital budget, just over $2.5-million for the Riverside pedestrian tunnel — as with all placeholder funds, they're approved in principal and they remain subject to council approval as to pre-commit those funds and release them to be used at some future point when council deems that appropriate."
"I double checked them, triple checked them with the treasurer and even after I decided to move forward with my platform, I checked once again to make sure that they were there, says Bortolin.
The city's Integrity Commissioner cannot investigate complaints during an election campaign — when asked why bring this up if it can't be investigated, Charif says it's his duty.
"If somebody is lying to the public, it is misrepresenting them and he is lying to them to get elected, it is my duty to open the eyes," Charif says.
Bortolin says this shouldn't be what election campaigns are about.
"Election time is a time to talk about good ideas and share, whether you win or lose you want to bring good ideas to the table and when it comes to personal attacks, it's disappointing."
Also running in Ward 3 is Steve Palenkas.
The municipal election is October 22nd.