Just a few days before the municipal election in which she is running for re-election, Brampton’s embattled mayor says she has been “exonerated.”
Susan Fennell, mayor of the growing Toronto suburb since 2000, has agreed to pay for a $500 for a hotel room in Whistler, B.C. and $3,023 for a flight to London, U.K. following an examination by arbitrator Janet Leiper.
“Some of my detractors said I owed over $170,000,” the mayor told supporters on Friday. “The arbitrator has now agreed that all that is owing is a fraction of that.”
A report from Deloitte Canada tabled in August found that Fennell and her staff had improperly billed the municipality for $131,581.
Deloitte also concluded that the mayor’s $50,000-per-year car service might also have broken rules. Fennell maintained that the car service allowed her to do city work while in transit.
In September, the city’s newly-hired integrity commissioner Robert Swayze agreed that Fennell had broken rules, including when her staff city paid for eight Air Canada passes that allowed flights to be upgraded from economy to business class.
One such pass cost $28,260 for 30 one-way flights in North America, or $942 per flight. “I believe that this level of pass was purchased by the Mayor or her staff with her approval solely because they are freely upgradeable to business class,” Swayze wrote.
Leiper decided that those passes, “did not offend the wording of the purposes of the existing policy.”
Fennell said Friday that supporters should spread the news of her exoneration before Monday’s election.
“We have three days left to make sure people hear the truth,” she said. “They’ve been hoodwinked.”
A Forum Research poll taken earlier this month found that 42 per cent of decided and leaning voters supported former Liberal MPP Linda Jeffrey, compared to 27 per cent for Councillor John Sanderson and 14 per cent for Fennell.
