Brampton council returns to the table after six cancelled meetings

Brampton city council finally sat down to the table for the first time since June 1.

The special council meeting on Aug. 5 started on time at 9:30 a.m. and all nine councillors and Mayor Patrick Brown attended.

The last council meeting, scheduled on July 19 was the sixth meeting to be cancelled due to lack of attendance.

The councillors having been fighting over how a vacant seat should be filled on council before municipal elections this fall.

One side of the dispute is Mayor Patrick Brown along with councillors Harkirat Singh, Michael Palleschi, Rowena Santos and Paul Vicente. On the other side are councillors Jeff Bowman, Gurpreet Dhillon, Pat Fortini, Martin Medeiros and Doug Whillans.

At the centre of the dispute is the way the seat formally held Charmaine Williams will be filled after she was elected as an MPP in the June Provincial election. The Superior Court of Justice recently ruled that a pre-emptive move to fill the seat was illegal.

The matter is on the huge, 946 page agenda.  It could be a long day.