Police to be called in to investigate Brampton council spending
Brampton city councillors have voted to send an audit of politicians spending to a police force outside of Peel Region.

theStar.com
Aug. 6, 2014
Tim Alamenciak and San Grewal

Police will be called in to investigate Brampton’s mayor and councillors after a scathing forensic audit found hundreds of expenses that broke city rules.

Residents, who had packed the council chamber at Brampton’s city hall to watch, cheered and clapped when council finally voted to launch the investigation.

“Let's get the whole truth out,” one person yelled from the public gallery following several hours of debate marked by apologies from some councillors and defiance from some of the nine council members in attendance.

When one resident asked councillors if the misspent money would be repaid, council and staff confirmed that any expenses that were wrongly charged to taxpayers would be repaid.

Mayor Susan Fennell, whose spending triggered the audit four months ago, stayed for the entire meeting and faced a steady chorus of hecklers.

“I accept responsibility, good and bad...I heard the message loud and clear,” she said on the council floor. Then she jumped on the offensive, accusing the media and certain councillors of “cheap shots.”

She repeatedly said, “The buck stops here.”

But councillors seemed determined to tackle the scandal head-on and the debate quickly shifted to calling in the police.

The audit, released Tuesday, found Fennell and her staff broke spending rules 265 times over seven years. The misspent money totalled $131,581. Another 79 transactions by Fennell and her staff totalling $155,952 may have broken spending rules, but the auditor did not receive proper information from Fennell or the city to make a determination. The auditors said police would be able to issue warrants to get information.

The other 10 members of council had a total of $42,979 in expenses that breached the city’s rules.

“How do we get this matter before the courts,” said Councillor Elaine Moore, at Wednesday’s raucous council meeting. She asked the external auditor, Deloitte Canada if a “police investigation” is possible.