With Susan Fennell gone, Brampton looks to repair its image

Amid spending scandals, city has received poor grades for livability, attractiveness to skilled workers and budgeting processes.

Thestar.com
Nov. 1, 2014
By San Grewal

From the eighth floor of his downtown Brampton law firm, William Davis - “Brampton Bill” as the former Ontario premier is known in his hometown - looks out at a city that’s screaming for change.

It’s August, about two months before the municipal election, and Davis is anxious.

“The City of Brampton does not have a definitive plan, in terms of its future,” Davis said. He had big hopes for Susan Fennell when she became mayor 14 years ago. But, he said, she got caught up in “self-interests.”

His city was in desperate need of direction, he said. Otherwise, Brampton’s notoriety would grow.

Flash forward to October 27. Davis is on stage at the Embassy Grand banquet hall in the city’s north end, surrounded by a crowd of mostly Punjabi-Canadians. They are also screaming for mayor-elect Linda Jeffrey.

She has just won the election. Davis introduces her as the next mayor of Brampton. On stage, she repeats one of her campaign slogans, once again promising the change that the city is looking for.

Davis is beaming. He too wants change. Badly.

Brampton’s damaged reputation goes far beyond the private fundraising gala controversies and spending problems that have surrounded the mayor’s office for the last four years.

In a MoneySense magazine’s annual rating of the best Canadian cities to live in, this year’s survey had Brampton at 166 out of 201, the lowest of any GTA municipality.

A recent Conference Board of Canada report ranked 50 Canadian cities based on their attractiveness to skilled workers, allocating letter grades from A to D. Brampton received a D. “Without question, the ‘D’ cities are struggling,” the report said.

C.D. Howe, a respected Canadian think tank that often examines the financial status of the country, ranked Brampton near the bottom of large Canadian cities in two reports it released over the last three years analyzing municipalities’ budgeting processes.

Taken together, the rankings point to a culture within city hall that needs to change. John Corbett, the city’s chief administrative officer, concedes as much.

“We are turning things around,” Corbett says.

Corbett has been with the city for 29 years. In late 2012 he became the city’s top bureaucrat, when he took over for Deborah Dubenofsky, whose contract was not renewed.

The last two years have not been a smooth ride for him.

With councillors angered about projects in their wards not getting done, Corbett conducted a capital projects review early this year. It found that tens of millions of dollars budgeted for approved infrastructure could not be accounted for.

The city’s principal performing arts centre, the Rose Theatre, had its operations audited. The audits found dozens of rules were being ignored. The theatre, located at the main intersection of Brampton’s historic city-centre, often sits empty, with nothing booked.

The $500-million downtown redevelopment plan, another embarrassment, has been mired by accusations of secrecy. There is also a $28.5-million lawsuit against the city by a developer who alleges he was unfairly disqualified from the bidding. The city denies the claim. The case is still working its way through the courts. Meanwhile, the first phase, an expansion of city hall, is now almost a year behind schedule.

And then there’s the spending scandal. A forensic audit by Deloitte Canada found council members did not follow city spending rules. In the mayor’s office, the audit found the rules had been broken hundreds of times. Fennell later said she was exonerated by an appeal arbitrator’s report that dramatically reduced the amount of expenses she had to pay back.

Meanwhile, as the spending issues and earlier questions surrounding the transparency of the fundraising gala organized by Fennell dominated council, important city-building issues for the rapidly growing municipality appeared to get short shrift. Among the files: Fennell’s efforts to give Brampton a stronger voice at regional council in 2013 came too late for this term; the provincial ministry that issued a proposal call for new universities determined an application to build a campus in Brampton did not meet the basic requirements; and as Metrolinx considers which projects to fund on its $50-billion regional transit plan, Brampton council delayed decisions to support an LRT system to the city. The LRT’s future is still uncertain.

It’s a long list of disappointments but Corbett points to small changes that are underway. It will take time to see if they add up to anything.

“The Deloitte audit was completed with full co-operation of the administration,” Corbett says.

He also addressed complaints that the city has not kept the public properly informed on important issues.

“The city’s executive leadership team has made it a priority to create easier access to information by opening up our books.”

“The next term of city council will bring new ideas, best practices and informed opinions to the table,” Corbett said, responding to concerns about the perceived mismanagement at city hall. “Regardless of who sits at that table, my commitment to the Brampton public remains the same: staff will continue to focus on customer service, sound business strategy, transparency and accountability.”

Corbett is one of many leaders in Brampton talking optimistically about the prospects for change.

Monday’s election results will see seven new council members (out of 11), including Jeffrey.

“We can’t allow Brampton to be led in the wrong direction, or not be led at all,” says Neil Davis, the former premier’s son, who is a partner in his father’s law firm. He’s widely known in the city, after 25 years of volunteer work to bring in a new hospital and to revitalize the aging downtown.

He says city hall became too insular, with some inside more focused on maintaining control than moving the city forward.

“I think other communities do a much better job of finding their leaders and engaging their leaders, having them help in taking on big tasks.”

For example, he says the common goal of bringing the city its first university will now hopefully involve people who can finally get it done. “I don’t think the city by itself can attract the kind of academic institution we should have. It’s going to require the talent of a number of people who can use their expertise and influence to get the citizenry involved. Then people will say ‘I can help you with this ask’.”

A more open, less insular approach at city hall will go a long way.

One business leader says the power struggles inside city hall caused problems.

“I would have said that our board of trade was working with the city perhaps too closely,” says Brampton Board of Trade chair Susan Crawford, who was named to the position in December. “Some members felt we stopped our watchdog role.”

Crawford says there was a spillover effect with city council’s inability to lead effectively. “There were issues brewing with the council of that day that became so divisive that all these other institutions (in Brampton) started breaking away.”

Crawford, like Neil Davis, acknowledged that as a result there has been a “piecemeal” approach by many of the city’s community-building organizations, instead of any clear, cohesive citywide strategy on major issues.
They also agree that things are about to change.

“I think there’s a great opportunity with Linda Jeffrey as mayor,” she says, pointing out Jeffrey’s connections with Queen’s Park, where as a Brampton MPP she served as minister of natural resources, labour, and municipal affairs and housing.

Crawford says the board is already taking a more active role to make sure Brampton will no longer be “left behind.”

Two months ago, well before the election, Bill Davis listed all the important files that city hall needs to take action on, immediately. The man who began building a still-revered political career five decades ago emphasized the need for a cohesive council with a principled mayor. Brampton, he said, needed a real leader to lift the city out of a tumultuous period.

Although he never came out and formally endorsed Jeffrey during the campaign, Davis made it clear he thinks she is the right person for the job. But he acknowledged that he had been wrong about Fennell 14 years earlier.

“Look, I am not going to be around for all the big changes that we need,” he said in August, gazing out from his office over Brampton. “But I want my grandchildren, like everyone else, to live in a great city.”