A ‘mess top to bottom:’ An inside look at the allegations consuming Brampton’s city hall

The next day, city council voted to forward her allegations to Peel Regional Police and the provincial ombudsman, as well as to hire a third-party investigator.

The unsigned letter that surfaced this week is the latest development in a flurry of allegations and recriminations that are consuming the city hall of Ontario’s fourth-largest city.

The cascade of bad news out of Brampton City Hall — where three senior positions are now held by officials who had been involved in a separate municipal scandal that recently ensnared Niagara — has left observers warning there could be lasting impacts.

One city councillor who asked not to be named described the recent situation in Brampton as a “mess from top to bottom” that is consuming the municipality’s attention while serious issues, including the pandemic, need to be addressed.

A former Brampton councillor and a municipal government expert say Brown’s alleged visit to Kaur raises concerns that he violated city policy.

“That is way outside the scope of his responsibilities. It is inappropriate. And quite frankly, I think it puts the municipality at risk,” said Elaine Moore, a former Brampton councillor who served the city for 18 years and was part of Brown’s 2018 mayoral campaign. She said elected officials are required to stay out of human resources issues.

When asked about his alleged meeting with Kaur on April 25, Brown said in a text message, “I don’t feel comfortable sharing any private conversations with Mrs. Kaur other than to say I take her complaints ... seriously.”

“Her reason for reaching out to me was to ensure whistleblower protection which I fully support and advocate for. Anything further you should direct to her.”

The timing of Brown’s alleged visit raises questions as it came 10 days before a confidential May 5 council vote ordering city staff to rehire Kaur and place her in another department, according to two Brampton councillors who spoke on the condition they not be named because they were not authorized to discuss closed-door matters. Those councillors said the mayor was not authorized to communicate with Kaur.

Brown’s alleged visit is detailed in the unsigned letter that landed in a city official’s inbox Tuesday morning. It purports to have been written by an assistant to Kaur, although it is written in the first person as Kaur herself. Kaur denied any knowledge of the letter when it first surfaced earlier this week.

Among the letter’s allegations is a claim the mayor came to Kaur’s house with a quid pro quo: If Kaur dropped her complaints, she would be offered her job back.

Brown denies asking Kaur to withdraw her complaint, but would not reply when asked if he discussed a city job with her on April 25.

Torstar is not able to independently confirm the allegation in the letter, which went to the city’s HR director, whose lawyer then passed it to the city clerk.

Kaur said that Brown was at her house but would not comment on what was said.

Brown said he is a long-time personal friend of Kaur and has been invited to her house many times in the past.

“I take Gurdeep Kaur’s concerns very seriously. And that’s why I moved the motion to have her (April 22) allegations investigated,” Brown said.

Brown was the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party until 2018, when he resigned following sexual misconduct allegations which he denies. He was replaced as party leader by Doug Ford, but resurrected his political career when he was elected Brampton mayor that same year.

Former councillor Moore said Brown should be transparent about whether he was at Kaur’s home and what they talked about.

“You don’t put yourself in a situation where you are left with people speculating on whether or not that’s what you really did. That’s just a serious error in judgment,” she said.

Retired Brock University political science professor David Siegel said an elected official visiting a fired employee could have significant ramifications on a municipality’s efforts to negotiate a severance package.

“It is just such a bad look,” Siegel said.

Siegel said as a matter of policy in most municipalities, councillors have no role in hirings or firings except for the chief administrative officer, who is the only employee who works directly for the elected council. All other employment issues fall under the purview of human resources.

This arrangement is “being touted by municipalities as a firewall that prevents political influence in hiring,” Siegel said.

Brampton’s recruitment bylaw says councillors and the mayor “will not attempt, in any way, to influence the hiring” of personnel or show favouritism to those seeking city jobs.

The unsigned letter also takes aim at Brampton human resources director Sandeep Aujla, who was also one of the targets of Kaur’s allegations in her April 22 complaint.

Aujla has filed a $200,000 lawsuit against Kaur, saying Kaur’s “defamatory email is totally untrue” and has caused significant reputational damage.

“The allegations proffered by Ms. Kaur are entirely false, and Ms. Aujla has total confidence that she will be vindicated,” Aujla’s lawyer, Alex Van Kralingen, said in a statement.

Beginning in 2019, Brampton hired key senior managers linked to a previous political scandal in Niagara, including David Barrick, Brampton’s chief administrative officer (CAO).

Barrick came up the QEW to Brampton following a backroom scheme to rig the hiring of Niagara’s CAO, which was denounced by Ontario’s Ombudsman as an “inside job” that was “unjust and wrong.”

Two other key figures in the Niagara scandal were also hired by the city of Brampton.

In 2016, a candidate for Niagara’s CAO position, Carmen D’Angelo, was provided confidential information — including interview questions and answers, and drafts of confidential chair’s reports — before and during the hiring process.

The ombudsman found that prior to the CAO hiring, a Niagara councillor attempted to enlist a senior government manager into a shadow public relations campaign to assist the candidacy of D’Angelo. Torstar had confirmed that councillor was Barrick, who also worked for D’Angelo at the time at the local conservation authority.

Barrick was the central target of Kaur’s April 22 complaint, sent by email to councillors and journalists. She accused her boss of mismanaging public funds and pressuring her to hire unqualified personnel.

Barrick did not respond to interview requests for this story. A city spokeswoman said staff will not respond to questions due to the pending third-party investigations.

Kaur was fired within hours of sending her April 22 email, but her allegations triggered an emergency meeting of city council the next evening. It was at that meeting when councillors voted for investigations. Two sources say two motions to sideline Barrick — one to fire him and the other to suspend him — were defeated by a single vote.

Brampton Councillor Jeff Bowman, not one of the sources who commented on the closed-door votes, said the internal situation at city hall has become a “huge distraction from the issues this council should be focused on.”

Siegel, the political scientist who is authoring a paper on the decline of Ontario’s political culture, said the scandal may have lasting impact.

“What this does, especially when it is something coming from the top of the municipality, is further erode public trust in the government,” he said. “It results in the public taking everything the municipality says or does with suspicion.”