A former chair of Vancouver’s city finance committee has condemned Mayor Gregor Robertson’s office for leaking information in a staff report to two newspapers before it went on the city website.

Tim Louis, a member of the COPE executive, told the Straight by phone that “favouring a specific media in an exclusive manner will corrupt democracy”.

The ex-councillor and lawyer made the allegation in response to the mayor’s office notifying the Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Sun about a city manager’s recommendation regarding the future of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The leak ensured that reporters at the favoured newspapers would have time to scoop their rivals in the print and electronic media on one of the biggest arts and real-estate stories of the year.

“The public should have the right to be aware of the council package materials just as soon as everybody else in order to make it a level playing field,” Louis said.

“When we favour specific media with city-council initiatives, we encourage media favouritism of the party in power. A relationship develops over time between that party and the favourite media—‘I’ll scratch your back and you scratch my back’—and this is very troubling and of great concern to COPE.”

The mayor’s office has not provided the Straight with an explanation why information in a staff report was leaked to the two newspapers before it could even be examined on the website by the city’s own employees.