The departing boss of the Sony Centre was reimbursed in part with public funds for “inappropriate” expenses — including a $890 boozy Christmas lunch with staff — and his personal company was paid a $572,000 consulting fee to plan a new facility that was later scrapped.

CEO Dan Brambilla, who is stepping down at the end of this month, also expensed an undisclosed sum for eating in the centre’s cafeteria, which was later justified as “quality control testing.”

And his $15,000 wedding at the centre in 2010 resulted in Brambilla’s company being paid nearly $8,000 by the centre for the rights to promote the ceremony online.

Brambilla is now at the centre of a renewed spending scandal at the city-owned theatre, after audit findings released Wednesday outlined the troubling reimbursements the centre made to the CEO, which were approved or overlooked by the previous board.

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“We have a situation here that has been seemingly brewing out of control,” said Councillor Shelley Carroll, who sits on the city’s audit committee. “We’ve lost confidence in what’s going on over there.”

Council voted Wednesday to replace the board with a temporary team of eight councillors and senior city staff and added other control measures, including training for a future board.

A response from “Sony Centre management” defending the expenditures was also made public Wednesday — though it’s not clear who specifically wrote the three-page document. Brambilla did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

The findings come after an auditor general’s report found issues with the management of the Sony Centre’s massive redevelopment — the cost of which rose from $28 million to over $40 million under the previous board.

Since 2008, the city has subsidized the centre at about $1 million per year. Brambilla’s salary has not been made public.

After he assumed the role of CEO in 2002, Brambilla’s personal company, Stage By Stage Holdings, was paid $572,000 for consulting on the CityCentre project, a proposed cultural and arts hub at the theatre. That project was eventually scrapped and replaced by the redevelopment project still underway.

Brambilla’s company — which according to the CEO’s LinkedIn page is “devoted to the development of new musicals” — received the payment as part of $3.4 million spent by the centre on preparing a business plan.

The audit found the payment was “inappropriate,” as Brambilla was an employee of the centre, not a consultant.

As for expenses, the CEO was compensated for $1,250 in airfare and event tickets for his wife, Nancy, while on two Canadian business trips.

The audit found Brambilla also expensed at least six political fundraising events, including for former federal Liberal party leader Bob Rae and two events for former Liberal MPP George Smitherman — to a total of $4,650.

“The appropriateness of using taxpayer money to fund certain political parties is questionable even though the amounts are not significant,” the audit reads.

In 2009, the CEO charged $890 for a Christmas lunch with seven staff. More than a third of the pre-tax bill was for alcohol, the audit found.

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Brambilla also ate an unknown number of lunches with his wife at the centre’s cafeteria over an undisclosed period of time — but he expensed his half of the meal, including $225 over two weeks in 2010.

In September 2010, Brambilla and his wife were married at the Sony Centre in a $15,000 affair. He paid that cost in full in 2011, the audit said.

But before he paid off the wedding, Brambilla’s company was paid $7,910 by the centre for promotional rights to the wedding photos and and to demand the couple be available for interviews, to garner other prospective events.

“We found that to be a very odd transaction,” auditor general Jeff Griffiths told councillors Wednesday.

The management response addresses the allegations point by point. It claims Brambilla was “self employed” when he was paid a consulting fee.

The document also said Brambilla’s wife’s travelled with him to Ottawa “to determine if a cooking show being presented at the [National Arts Centre] would work in Toronto.” A later trip to Quebec City was “in error” and repaid with interest, the document said.

Political fundraisers were attended largely to solicit support from senior governments for the earlier CityCentre project, the document said.

And the document claimed paying Brambilla’s company for wedding promotion rights was determined to be “reasonable” because it was a “beta test” for future events.

Councillor Pam McConnell, who sits on the Sony Centre board, told reporters those explanations are “not comprehensible.”

“I don’t think it’s comprehensible to anybody who knows about defending the public purse,” she said. “I think it’s much more an action of someone who is in the private sector playing loosey-goosey with private money. But this was public money.”

Councillor Josh Matlow, who also sits on the audit committee that first heard the new findings, said the spending “raises eyebrows.”

“The board and Brambilla were entrusted with those public dollars to serve the public interest and to make the Sony Centre a great success for the City of Toronto,” he said.

Last week, all eight civilian members of the board, who took over in 2011, resigned ahead of their pending replacement.

The controversy has raised questions at council over the city’s role in the three theatres it owns and how it manages arm’s-length boards.

“It’s not just the right people; we need the right rules,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who called the expenses “disturbing.”

The temporary board will be responsible for picking a new board after and a new CEO, said Carroll.