Linda Jeffrey is set to clean house as Brampton’s new mayor

TheGlobeAndMail.com
Dec. 1, 2014
Dakshana Bascaramurty

Linda Jeffrey is inheriting a city government whose reputation is in tatters.

For the past year and a half, Brampton has been plagued by scandal and its residents have lost trust in its politicians. Ms. Jeffrey, who will be sworn in as mayor of this fast-growing metropolis Monday, has plans to clean house.

Ms. Jeffrey says she and her team will be looking at all corners of city hall to restore transparency and accountability: the focus of the first 100 days of her term. In an exclusive hour-long sit-down with The Globe and Mail ahead of her inauguration, Ms. Jeffrey spoke about the mess the city is in, and how she sees it as her top priority to put Brampton back on the right track – the task she was elected to complete, and one that stands to define her entire term.

She doesn’t fully trust the word of staff so she plans to bring in a third party to report on the state of the city’s finances. She has already butted heads with the city manager, whose reports she has questioned. She would like to hire a fully independent integrity commissioner for the city, one whose rulings cannot be dismissed by council. She plans to slash her own salary as a first order of business and wants to “have a conversation” with fellow councillors about cutting back their salaries and benefits.

“I think that there’s just been a culture at city hall that we’re doing everything right and we can’t improve and every report that comes back [that says otherwise] is questioned,” Ms. Jeffrey said.

Sitting in a temporary office at Alderlea, a restored historic property in downtown Brampton, the mayor-elect talks about her city as a concerned parent might: sighing heavily and wondering how her once bright and responsible child has gone so far astray since leaving home.

Ms. Jeffrey was first elected to Brampton city council in 1991. In 2001, she helped negotiate the sale of Brampton Hydro for $262-million. She entered provincial politics as a Liberal MPP two years later, confident the city’s finances would remain in good shape for years to come.

But this past spring, a media report revealed that more than $700-million in city funds earmarked for various projects was unaccounted for. City manager John Corbett said at the time the funds weren’t “missing” but rather some may have been reallocated to other projects and others were “on hold” as the city waited for approvals on some projects from senior levels of government.

Ms. Jeffrey isn’t convinced.

“The numbers that I have seen thus far don’t give me comfort. What we learned last year told us that the procurement model was not as open and transparent as we would like,” she said.

In fact, the city is being sued by a developer for $28.5-million on a claim that he was unfairly shut out of a bid for a lucrative downtown development project.

The word of the city manager has given Ms. Jeffrey pause other times, too. After the election, the mayor-elect and councillors sat down with Mr. Corbett to discuss the state of the city and he painted a rosy picture of how Brampton is viewed from the outside.

“He was telling my colleagues that people seek our advice on best practices on a regular basis,” she said. She paused, her eyes narrowing. “I’m not sure they do.”

Since her mistrust extends to lower-ranking bureaucrats as well, Ms. Jeffrey says the city needs “third-party validation” on the true state of its finances. She said some of council’s bad decision making may have been because they weren’t briefed properly.

When asked if a major shakeup of city staff is coming, the mayor-elect was coy.

“I think people are speculating about what I will do. … I think there was a big enough mandate for us to look at everything,” she said.

Last week, rumours circulated in Brampton political circles that Ms. Jeffrey planned to invite Ontario Ombudsman André Marin to investigate Brampton. When asked for her opinion on whether the Ombudsman would be the right person for the job, Ms. Jeffrey avoided answering the question directly. She has spoken more generally in support of an expanded mandate for the Ombudsman, who may soon have more power to investigate municipalities if Bill 8 is passed at Queen’s Park. Linda Williamson, a spokesperson for the Ombudsman’s office, confirmed Ms. Jeffrey and Mr. Marin had spoken on the phone last week but would not share the details of their conversation.

One of the first places Ms. Jeffrey is looking for change is council itself, to tackle what critics have described as a “culture of entitlement.”

“I think the last year would demonstrate that council was ... blissfully unaware of some of the things they should be doing as elected officials,” Ms. Jeffrey said.

Last year, outgoing mayor Susan Fennell earned $213,000 (a combination of City of Brampton and Region of Peel pay). Ms. Jeffrey said she’d like to slash those earnings to be in line with what provincial cabinet ministers earn (about $165,800).

The salaries of other members of council may also get trimmed. In 2006, they made $49,720 but voted to approve generous annual increases that have since boosted their salaries by more than 50 per cent. Last year, council also voted in favour of severance packages that would boost payouts from 12 months to 18 months. Pension packages and health benefits were also sweetened.

“It wasn’t the most transparent way to give yourself a raise,” Ms. Jeffrey said. She said she plans to discuss compensation with council after she is sworn in.

The rules framework council follows is also in need of change, the mayor-elect says.

In 2008, council voted in a new code of conduct that replaced the rules-based expense policy with a value-based one that eliminated checks and balances in the process of claiming personal expenses – the reason council and especially the mayor were able to skirt spending rules repeatedly.

Ms. Jeffrey has studied the City of Vaughan’s code of conduct, which she said is “detailed and practical,” and has flagged it for Brampton’s integrity commissioner, Robert Swayze, to look at as a template.

But Mr. Swayze’s days on the job may be numbered, too. He works only part-time for the city, providing services to other municipalities. Ms. Jeffrey believes the city needs an integrity commissioner who works full-time for Brampton, and, unlike in the past, one whose rulings won’t be dismissed by council. Mr. Swayze’s predecessor, Donald Cameron, was hired in 2011 but after filing a report this spring that council was unhappy with, they voted to fire him. The culture of being resistant to outside scrutiny must end, she said.

“If you are doing everything right, you don’t worry about people coming in to see what you’re doing,” she said.