Brampton residents call out ‘dysfunctional’ council after third meeting scrapped this week

Brampton residents waiting for days to have their voices heard in council chambers said they are growing tired of a “dysfunctional” city council and members who may be “playing silly games” after more than a month of gridlocked meetings.

For the third day in a row, a special meeting of council was called to an end before it officially began on Thursday (July 21) due to not enough council members in attendance.

Meetings cannot proceed without at least six members present within the first 30 minutes of the meeting start time, and Thursday’s session was scrapped after councillors Jeff Bowman, Pat Fortini, Martin Medeiros, Gurpreet Dhillon and Doug Whillans were absent again.

The cancellation marked the seventh consecutive special or regular council meeting that has been scrapped in recent months following an illegal and pre-emptive motion to fill a council seat before it was declared empty.

The absent councillors along with former councillor and current MPP for Brampton Centre Charmaine Williams supported the quashed motion, while Mayor Patrick Brown and councillors Harkirat Singh, Michael Palleschi, Paul Vicente and Rowena Santos were opposed.

Council members on both sides of the motion have boycotted recent meetings, bringing council business to a standstill.

Brown and his supporters deliberately missed two special meetings and two regular meetings of council to stall the appointment while the court came to its ruling.

The supporting councillors issued regrets to the City Clerk for missing the three special meetings this week, saying they are either on vacation or dealing with personal matters.

Mayor Brown said he has spoken with councillor Fortini, and believes that councillor Medeiros may be away “in the islands of Portugal.”

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Some residents in council chambers on Thursday said they were frustrated with the continued cancellations.

“If they’re on vacation and it was prearranged, that’s acceptable. If they’re playing silly games, that’s unacceptable,” one resident told councillor Santos in a post shared to her Instagram account.

“I think the whole of the council is dysfunctional,” another resident told the councillor. “I don’t want to put blame on one side or the other, it’s dysfunctional.”

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown (centre) and Councillors Rowena Santos (top left), Paul Viciente (bottom left), Harkirat Singh (top right), and Michael Palleschi (bottom right).

Brampton Councillors Jeff Bowman (top left), Pat Fortini (top middle), Martin Medeiros (top right), former Councillor Charmaine Williams (bottom left), Gurpreet Dhillon (bottom middle) and Doug Whillans (bottom right) supported a motion which has been ruled illegal under the Ontario Municipal Act.

Santos ended the video pleading in vain for just one of the absent councillors to attend the meeting before the 30 minute grace period ran out.

Following the controversial pre-appointment in May, Coun. Singh challenged the motion in court. The Ontario Superior Court decision ruled the motion was illegal under the Municipal Act and ordered the city to pay $20,000 to Singh to cover the cost of the challenge.

Mayor Brown said on Wednesday he was hoping to have a motion put forward that would see “the councillors pay the fine, not the city.”

If the court’s time limit to pay the fine runs out before any motion on the $20,000 fee can be passed, the city would have to pay the fine and “recoup that cost,” said Chief Administrative Officer Paul Morrison.

The missing councillors who supported the motion previously skipped meetings in February in protest of what they called the city’s “authoritarian dictatorship.”

Another special meeting has been called for 9:30 a.m. on Friday but is unlikely to proceed. Other meetings on the council callendar include July 25, Aug. 10 and Aug. 15.