Brampton mayor to launch full probe of city hall
Linda Jeffrey announces sweeping accountability moves at inauguration.

TheStar.com
Dec. 2, 2014
Tim Alamenciak

Brampton’s newly elected mayor Linda Jeffrey will ask former Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter to review the city’s books and plans to invite the provincial ombudsman, Andre Marin, to investigate the city as soon as Bill 8 gives him the power to do so.

“Both individuals have strong credentials and years of experience that will benefit our city. Just as the Deloitte review of the previous administration highlighted problems that needed correcting, these reviews should help us identify what needs correcting and will help establish the necessary foundation Brampton needs so we can move forward,” said Jeffrey.

Jeffrey announced the accountability moves at her inauguration Monday night, as she formally takes over the office from the scandal-plagued former mayor, Susan Fennell.

Jeffrey beat Fennell, by a large margin in the Oct. 27 election, with the former Brampton MPP capturing 49 per cent of the popular vote.

“The public set a very clear mandate to not only myself but our council that they want accountability and transparency at city hall,” said Jeffrey to the media before the inauguration ceremony.

Among the proposals Jeffrey announced:

• She will ask council to approve a review of Brampton’s financial operations and management by McCarter.
• Invite provincial ombudsman Andre Marin to review the city’s practices and make recommendations on improving “accountability, openness and transparency.”
• Implement a full-time integrity commissioner.
• Jeffrey will post her hospitality and travel expenses online each quarter, as well as those of her staff. Jeffrey is asking all elected officials to also do this.
• The mayor’s pay will by cut by more than $50,000.
• Jeffrey plans to implement a gift registry for staff and elected officials and rigid guidelines for sole-sourced contracts.

Fennell came under controversy when an outside auditor was asked to review allegations of inappropriate spending by the mayor’s office and councillors. The audit found that Fennell and her staff broke spending rules 266 times over seven years in cases where documents were available, totalling $172,608 in misspent funds. An integrity commissioner's report ruled that Fennell “knowingly” violated the city's code of conduct.

The Deloitte audit had recommended that Fennell pay back $34,118, but the amount was lowered to $3,522.97 on appeal to the audit's dispute resolution arbitrator. Ten councillors were also told by Deloitte to repay a total of $33,769 for spending violations, but the appeal arbitrator reduced that total amount to $7,000.

For violating the code of conduct, city council voted in November to issue the maximum penalty to Fennell, docking her 90 days pay. Council also ordered that she repay $144,150 in fees that had been paid by the city for a limousine service, and for which Fennell did not provide documentation to auditors to show it was for city business. Fennell can get the $144,150 back if she can provide proof the car was used as intended.

Council has also handed the Deloitte audit to the OPP for investigation. It’s not known what stage the investigation is at.

The city has also been subject to controversy outside the mayor's office. George Rust-D'Eye, a prominent municipal lawyer, was brought in to review a downtown development deal made by the city and worth more than $500 million. Rust-D’Eye’s full report is slated to be released by the end of 2014, but an interim report released in early October raised many issues. Rust-D’Eye said in the interim report that more investigation was needed to determine if there was any wrongdoing.

“The first audit that I’m hoping Jim McCarter is asked to come in to do will primarily look at our revenues and our reserves and where we are from a financial perspective. We’ve been told for the last couple of years that we’re a triple-A credit rated community. I have some doubts about where our reserves are. I want some confirmation that things are as rosey as we’ve been told, or not,” said Jeffrey.

McCarter was Ontario's auditor general for 10 years, serving from October 2003 to April 2013.
According to the auditor general’s website, he issued reports on a wide range of issues including eHealth, the ORNGE air ambulance service, and the cost of cancelling the partially-constructed power plant in Mississauga.

In a speech delivered to a packed city council chambers Monday, Jeffrey reiterated her election promise to cut her salary by more than $50,000 and announced measures that directly target areas of scandal from the previous administration.

Jeffrey committed to posting travel and hospitality expenses online each quarter for her and her staff. Many of the transactions from Fennell’s office that the Deloitte audit highlighted were related to travel expenses.

Jeffrey also said she will propose “rigid guidelines for sole-source contracts.” An audit of the government-funded Brampton Downtown Development Corporation found that Meri-Mac Inc., an event planning firm owned by a friend of Fennell’s, received more than $100,000 in sole-sourced contracts over the past seven years. The corporation maintains that proper procedures were followed.

“This is an opportunity to look at the state of the books and to be sure that what we’re doing on a go-forward basis is accurate. We had some scandals in the city over the last year, whether it’s the expenses or whether it’s procurement and certainly the capital projects,” said Jeffrey.

Jeffrey said she has had some “preliminary discussions” with Marin and will invite him to Brampton as soon as Bill 8 — a provincial act that will likely give his office oversight of municipalities — passes. The bill is currently being debated before the Legislature.

“I believe that the ombudsman, in the conversations I’ve had, understands that we need to have some new processes in place. Certainly I want to have more digital recordings of closed door meetings — it’s something that he’s been interested in. And I want to find a way to give people confidence not only in the mayor’s office, not only in city council, but what happens at city hall and I think he can be helpful in that regard,” Jeffrey told reporters.

“I think the best thing I can do as … mayor will be to provide him with access to all the information he needs in order to make good decisions and good recommendations to council and I look forward to him coming once the bill has been proclaimed,” said Jeffrey.