Patrick Brown, disqualified from CPC race, facing Brampton mayoral troubles as well

In the wake of Patrick Brown’s disqualification from the federal Conservative leadership race due to allegations of wrongdoing, a group of city councillors have called for an investigation into his dealings during his time as mayor of Brampton.

A group of five Brampton city councillors released a statement Wednesday reacting to the federal news, claiming Brown has what they describe as a “clear and alarming pattern of behaviour.”

“He didn’t get away with these tactics in his Conservative leadership bid and he shouldn’t get away with them in Brampton either,” the councillors wrote.

“Democracy in Brampton is under siege because of Patrick Brown.”

A majority of councillors voted recently for a series of forensic investigations, including into how contracts were given to firms involved in a push to bring a full university to Brampton.

“Brampton U was an initiative that was started probably two or three years ago, and it’s somebody who’s very close to Councillor Santos,” said Councillor Gupreet Singh Dhillon, one of the five councillors who signed off on the letter released Wednesday.

“Seven hundred thousand dollars has been sent and nothing’s come out of it, even the province doesn’t know about it. We need a forensic audit for that.”

RELATED: Patrick Brown claims disqualification was ‘orchestrated’ by Poilievre supporters

A report by the city’s interim chief administrative officer in May found that $629,000 went to four vendors involved with the project, but staff were unable to find the final product for five of the “deliverables” identified in the expenses.

The five councillors note that most of the money went to one firm, which employed a close associate of Brown.

“We’ve been bullied, we’ve been attacked on social media anonymously. All we want is for the truth to come out,” said deputy mayor Marco Medeiros.

Brown responded to the statement by noting they are a block of councillors critical of him. He also noted an ongoing controversy at city hall that has seen the two groups pitted against each other.

“When I was away on the leadership campaign, they fired the Integrity Commissioner and so now we’re trying to get an investigation into the firing and the Integrity Commissioner, and why it was improper,” Brown said in an interview.

“So this is a dispute that is very much been simmering at City Hall.”

If he’s unable to return to the federal Conservative leadership race, Brown could still run again for mayor of Brampton. The deadline to register is August 19. Brown declined to tell CityNews what his future plans would be.

Letter from Brampton city councillors