City to Investigate what happenned to Brenner

O'Connell want to get to the bottom of charges against councillor

By Kristen Calis

PICKERING -- Once a new internal report is complete, a City councillor hopes to find that the charges against former councillor Maurice Brenner were not malicious.

In May, 2006, Mr. Brenner was charged with two counts each of fraud under $5,000 and utter forged document, and breach of trust by a public officer when he was accused of invoicing false expense reports relating to a woman he allegedly hired to do clerical work. Last month, Madam Justice Katrina Mulligan dismissed the charges following a two-day trial when she couldn’t be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Brenner had done anything wrong.

On Monday night, Ward 1 City Councillor Jennifer O’Connell requested staff prepare a full report on who brought the charges forward to the Durham Regional Police Services, whether Council was consulted beforehand, and how a television reporter (Dale Goldhawk was named in the trial) got a hold of Council’s expenses, among others.

“I feel really, really upset if I found out it was one or a couple of people that got together and didn’t inform Council or the CAO,” she said in an interview.

Coun. O’Connell said her questions came about partly because Pickering’s treasurer Gil Paterson testified during the trial that after at least three investigations, including his own due diligence review, he was satisfied that the work in question had in fact been done, and that Mr. Brenner did pay the woman he’d hired. She noted testimony stated Chief Administrative Officer Tom Quinn or Mr. Paterson did not bring the charges forward.

“I was shocked during the trial,” Coun. O’Connell said in an interview. “I had no idea it was investigated that many times.”

Mr. Quinn will lead the review by interviewing important players, including Mr. Paterson, and looking at various documents (mostly from the trial). He said his most important duty in the investigation will be making sure all of the facts are correct.

“It’s a difficult task to deal with,” he said. “When you know the people in question, something like this is always difficult. But I will state the facts.”

Mr. Brenner is somewhat surprised that the information is in the public realm, but in an interview he said, “It’s really going to generate the discussion that the public is entitled to know. And they really are entitled to know.”

He said he’s received numerous letters, e-mails and phone calls from people who did not vote for him because of the allegations, and are now apologizing.

“This whole thing involved the public right from the very beginning as it related to breach of public trust,” he said.  
  
Ward 2 City Councillor Doug Dickerson said he believes it’s a public matter.

“I see it as taxpayers’ dollars and it should be done in the open chamber,” he said. “That’s how you stay open and transparent and accountable.”

In fact, he gave notice of motion at the meeting that he’s going to ask the City to reimburse Mr. Brenner for his legal fees.

“Former Councilor Brenner is out on the verge of $50,000 for something that he clearly did not do,” Coun. Dickerson said in an interview. “It cost him that much to defend his honour, his character, his word and his trustworthiness.”

He also said he wants to know the answers, and if it means calling in an outside investigator, “then so be it.”

“I anxiously look to see how things go and how they evolve really,” Mr. Brenner said.
Mr. Quinn plans to report back to the mayor and Council at the next meeting on Sept. 10.