THE CANADIAN PRESS

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WINDSOR, Ont. - The mayor of Windsor, Ont., has denounced a complaint to the city's integrity commissioner over a meeting he had with his Detroit counterpart, calling it frivolous and politically motivated.

Mayor Eddie Francis said Wednesday he was obliged in 2008 to meet Detroit's then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who later resigned under a cloud, to talk about Detroit's plans to sell its half of an international tunnel between the two cities.

At the time, Kilpatrick was facing perjury and other charges related to a text-messaging sex scandal.

"What you have here is a frivolous complaint by someone trying to politically manufacture an issue," Francis said in an interview.

"This is a member of the public, who is well known to us at city hall, who has made a complaint, and the basis of the complaint is that the mayor of Windsor should not meet with someone who has been charged."

The two cities, which jointly own the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, were negotiating buying out each other's share.

The two negotiating teams got together in July 2008 at Windsor's legal law offices in a publicly documented meeting.

Kilpatrick, as mayor at the time, was Detroit's lead negotiator for his side.

He later entered pleas in two criminal cases, resigned as mayor, and served 99 days in jail.

Windsor's Municipal Act prohibits meetings with someone facing felony allegations.

The process allows anyone to make a complaint, obliging Earl Basse, Windsor's integrity commissioner, to investigate.

The unidentified member of the public apparently lodged the complaint last year but Francis said he only heard about it Wednesday.

"I'm not concerned about it," Francis said. "It comes with the job."

Basse did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

-Written by Colin Perkel in Toronto