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Toronto Mayor Mayor Rob Ford says he complied with all election rules regarding expenses during his campaign last year.J.P. Moczulski

The two Toronto residents who have pressed for a compliance audit of Mayor Rob Ford's campaign spending have raised the legal stakes, recruiting prominent public law litigator Robert Centa, a veteran of the 2002 Toronto computer leasing inquiry, to provide pro bono advice as the dispute over election expenses moves into the courts.

Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler and Max Reed approached Mr. Centa about taking on the case after Mr. Ford's lawyer, Thomas Barlow, appealed a May 13 decision by council's compliance audit committee to move ahead with a review of the campaign's books.

Mr. Centa is a partner with Paliare Roland LLP, and was a member of a team of lawyers from the firm that represented the city during the so-called Bellamy inquiry, which probed the links between lobbyists, some city bureaucrats, a computer leasing firm and former budget chair Tom Jakobek. More recently, Mr. Centa served as assistant commission counsel for the 2007 Goudge inquiry into pediatric forensic pathology, which focused on the findings of Charles Smith.

"It's an important case," he said, lauding Mr. Barlow's expertise. "We think the interests of justice are best served when both sides have good counsel."

The two men have questioned more than $77,000 in campaign expenses paid by Doug Ford Holdings, as well as other costs for a kick-off event incurred before Mr. Ford registered his candidacy. None of the allegations have been proven and the mayor has said he complied with the rules.

While Mr. Centa said the computer leasing scandal was a very different situation, he notes that both cases touch on the importance of election finance rules that are "designed to promote a level playing field, accountability and transparency."

Later in the summer, he and Mr. Barlow will appear before a judge who must decide whether the committee should have waited until the Ford campaign closed its books on June 30, 2011, before ordering an audit. No court date has been set.

After a hotly disputed election in 2006, the City of Vaughan faced a similar legal dispute when it sought to delay a compliance audit of mayor Linda Jackson's campaign contributions. A 2008 court ruling allowed the audit to proceed, and a forensic team subsequently found that Ms. Jackson contravened the election laws.

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