An arbitrator has cleared embattled Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell of many of the expense policy violations identified in a third-party audit released over the summer.

The audit by Deloitte Canada found that Fennell and her staff were responsible for $131,581 in improper charges and expenses over a seven-year period, however a report by former City of Toronto Integrity commissioner Janet Leiper released on Friday says that Fennell is in fact only on the hook for $3,522.97.

The total includes the added cost of one first-class airfare ticket to London ($3,022.97) and one suite hotel room at the Fairmont Whistler ($500).

“Some of my detractors have said that I owed as much as $170,000. I said over and over that I did not. I said that I respect the rules. The arbitrator has now agreed and said that all that owes is a fraction of that,” Fennell told reporters, vowing to reimburse the city for the $3,522.97 in improper expenses. “That means that my critics were off by over 90 per cent. Enough is enough. It is over. My name is now cleared once and for all as I knew it would be.”

The initial audit singled out tens of thousands of dollars in flight passes, many of which expired before they were able to be used. The audit also claimed that Fennell used other more expensive passes in less expensive travel zones, violating a city policy requiring that flights be booked at the least expensive rate available.

In her report, however, Leiper said that “last minute bookings or changes” could have been more expensive than the flight passes in some circumstances, making the expense appropriate.

Leiper also wrote that $2,034 in flight pass credits were allowed to expire because Fennell’s husband was placed on call for heart surgery, noting that the explanation is a “legitimate” one.

Fennell is currently stuck in third place in the Brampton mayoral race, trailing former MPP Linda Jeffrey by 23 points in a Mainstreet Technologies poll released Tuesday.

“Folks, we have three days to make sure the people of Brampton know the truth,” Fennell told reporters outside her home on Friday. “They were hoodwinked.”

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